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Historic streetlamp moving from Underground to Buckhead
By Evelyn Andrews
The historic “Solomon
Luckie” streetlamp that
is currently displayed in
Underground Atlanta is
moving to Buckhead.
The Atlanta City Council
voted unanimously June 5
to sell the gas-fueled lamp
for a token amount to the
Atlanta History Center, where
it will accompany many
new exhibits, including the
“Battle of Atlanta” cyclorama
painting.
“To me, this is an iconic artifact
to Atlanta,” said Gordon Jones, the
center’s senior military historian. “It
has many stories to tell.”
The streetlamp is named for an
African American barber who was
killed when an artillery shell fired
during the Union Army’s shelling
of Atlanta in 1864 ricocheted off
the streetlamp and struck him.
He was carried by bystanders
to a hospital, where his leg was
amputated, but he did not survive
more than a few hours, according to
Franklin Garrett’s book “Atlanta and
Environs.”
Luckie, one of the few black
entrepreneurs in Atlanta at the time,
ran a barbershop in the Atlanta
Hotel, which was near the current
site of Underground Atlanta. The
hole left by artillery shell remains on
the streetlamp. Downtown’s Luckie
Street is named after the barber.
Jones said the city contacted
the center in October 2015 about
selling the lamp in preparation for
the redevelopment of Underground
Atlanta.
The property was officially
transferred to a South Carolina
developer March 31 and the city has
120 days to remove any property,
such as the streetlamp, that is not
part of the sale. The sale specifically
excluded any items of historical
or cultural significance to the city,
according to the ordinance.
The streetlamp was valued by the
city at less than $500, which allowed
the city under state law to sell or
donate it without advertisement for
accepting other bids. The Atlanta
History Center purchased the
streetlamp from the city
for $10, according to the
legislation.
The lamp was first lit
along with 49 others on
Christmas Day in 1855.
It was originally located at
the corner of Alabama and
Whitehall (now Peachtree)
streets, and was moved several
times before its installation in
Underground.
The streetlamp will provide
a lens into African American life
in Atlanta during the Civil War,
Jones said. It will stand near the
painting depicting the Civil War
battle.
“The exhibitions will speak to
both what white and black Atlanta
experienced at the time,” Jones
said.
It will also be surrounded by
several artifacts that have never
been displayed to the public,
including an original photograph
of Solomon Luckie and his wife,
Jones said.
“Getting the streetlamp gives
us the ability to connect artifacts
that haven’t been connected
before,” he said.
The Atlanta History Center
will also be able to provide context
and history to the lamp, as the
only plaques on the streetlamp
now are about the Confederacy.
It was proclaimed the “Eternal
Flame of the Confederacy” during
the 1939 “Gone with the Wind”
movie premiere celebrations in
Atlanta.
Similarly, the cyclorama was
painted in the North to celebrate
the Union victory, Jones said,
but was later altered to make
Confederate troops appear more
heroic.
“The two historical pieces
provide a great story on how
an artifact changes identity
depending on who is controlling
it,” Jones said.
The “Battle of Atlanta”
painting and historic locomotive “Texas”
are other famous artifacts of Atlanta’s
Civil War era that came to a new home
in the Atlanta History Center this year.
Unlike the streetlamp, they are both
leased by the city to the history center.
The “Texas” exhibit is expected to open
in the fall of 2017.
The streetlamp will be installed in
the hall that will house the “Battle of
Atlanta” painting, which is expected to
open in the fall of 2018. The streetlamp
remains lit in Underground for now,
but will make the move to Buckhead
sometime this summer.
Photos courtesy Atlanta History Center
The "Solomon Luckie” streetlamp shown here
in Underground Atlanta on June 16 will move to
the Atlanta History Center this summer.
(Top right) The hole left by an artillery shell
that hit and killed Solomon Luckie remains
on the streetlamp. (Top left) A plaque on the
streetlamp says it was named the "Eternal
Flame of the Confederacy during “Gone With
the Wind” premiere celebrations in Atlanta in
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