Blue John Remembers: Hearing the story of how one of the prominent streets on the Virginia side got its name. I had often wondered why Solar Street was given such a peculiar name. One lady who resides on Solar Street was asked if she knew and my ears were immediately smacked down with the tart answer, “I know I am old but I’m not that old!” Other inquiries brought no better results so I’ll have to tell you the story from scraps of information gleaned here and there. It seems that somewhere between 1860 and 1871, a tract of land including what is now known as Solar Street was subdivided into lots but sales proved to be slow. Sometime during the period immediately prior to 1871, the exact date I have been unable to fix, there occurred an eclipse of the sun and the eclipse was nearly total in Bristol. A party of astronomers was sent to Bristol to make an observation. They chose the highest available point in town and in order to properly orient their telescope they established a meridian- that is a true north and south line- along the top of Solar Hill, and placed markers or monuments at each end as reference points for the instruments. All this activity undoubtedly drew many interested spectators as well as others who were just plain curious. It was decided to hold an auction for the sale of the lots and the Reverend David Sullins acted as the auctioneer. He received his choice of two lots for his services. Many of the visitors recognized the commanding view from these lots and sales picked up. It is said that when the big day arrived and the moon began to creep across the face of the sun, that the Reverend Sullins threw his hat into the air and shouted, “Hallelujah!” at the top of his voice. Incidentally, this Reverend David Sullins was the founder of Sullins College. Thus, from this observation of a solar eclipse the name Solar Hill was applied to the hill and Solar Street to the street running along the top of the hill. A map in the Clerk’s office , dated 1860 shows no subdivision or streets on Solar Hill, but a later map dated 1871 does show Solar Street, by that name, so it must have been sometime between those two dates that the eclipse took place.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 17:45:04 +0000
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