Oxford English Dictionary

Joseph Jefferson Jackson was born in Pickens County, South Carolina around 1887. While Joe was still a young child, his family moved to Greenville’s Brandon Mill where his father worked in the textile mill. Jackson first began playing baseball for the Brandon Mill team at the age of thirteen. Joe’s skills led to his being hired in 1907 to play baseball for the Greenville Spinners. His major league career began in Philadelphia in 1908. Jackson also played for Cleveland beginning in 1910 and then with the Chicago White Sox in 1915. His career ended in Chicago in 1920 when he and seven teammates were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series. Although the eight players were acquitted by a grand jury, the “Black Sox” were suspended from playing professional baseball for life by Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Joe and his wife Katie returned to Greenville in 1929. Joe had this modest brick home built in the early 1940s and lived in it until his death in 1951. The house was moved from its original location at 119 East Wilburn Avenue to its present location in April 2006.

Directions: Leaving Heritage Green Place turn left onto Buncombe Street and proceed to the third traffic light. Turn right onto Main Street and drive south until Augusta Street forks off to the left. Proceed on Augusta to the first traffic light and turn right onto Field Street. The Joe Jackson house will be on the left across from West End Field, home of the Greenville Drive baseball team.

• Frommer, Harvey. Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball. Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company, 1992.
• Huff, Archie Vernon, Jr. Greenville: The History of the City and County in the South Carolina Piedmont. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1995..
• “Shoeless Joe’s Home Moves To Second Base.” The Greenville News, 5 April 2006: 1A.