Galesville Hot Sox Field at Wilson Park

The Galesville Hot Sox team was formulated in 1915 as a traveling sandlot baseball team made up of members of the thirty to forty African American families who lived in Galesville. Many of them were descendants of slaves and sharecroppers, and many of these first players would become role models to younger players in the future.

Many Hot Sox attended or joined the team after attending the Rosenwald School, a one-room elementary school for African American children that was built in 1929, expanded to two rooms in 1931 as part of  the Julius Rosenwald Program, and closed in 1956 when students began being bussed out of the village. This Rosenwald School is now the Galesville Community Center.

After the school was built, the ballfield was relocated to its present location at Hot Sox Field at Wilson Park. At that time the property was owned by Henry Wilson, a former slave who bought his freedom in the 19^th century, and although he’d originally envisioned using the land for senior housing he ended up renting the grassy 26-acre lot to the Hot Sox team for $50 a season, which ran from April through September.

The ball field had two cinderblock dugouts, a rickety wooden stand, and a backstop that became very well-worn over the decades. The field is now a County park, and has recently been fully renovated.