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ATHENS STREET NAMES AND OTHER EXPLORATIONS
O n the way into town one day last week, I did my
fieldwork... all five minutes of it. I drove in on
Sunset Drive, took Holman Avenue to West Broad
Street, headed toward downtown until I hung a
right on South Rocksprings Street, then I bore left at Waddell
Extension. Clarke Central High School loomed up, its addition
utterly devouring the street, so to keep from being eaten,
I turned left onto South Billups Street. In only a few yards,
there it was: Wanassed Street.
Yes, Wanassed Street. Pronounced "wanna said," as it
were... and in all probability it is the only so-named street in
the universe. It merits 18 hits on Google, and all of 'em come
right back to good old 30601-land.
I drove the entire one-block, cul-de-sac length of the
street, noted that there were five houses thereon, and that
the back door of Mt. Zion Church of God Holiness opened to
it. I turned around and returned to Billups, then made a right
to Dealing Extension, followed that until it became Dealing ,
Street, crossed Milledge Avenue, paused for a sec
at our old oaken friend The Tree That Owns Itself 2
Z
(Jr.), and rumbled down South Finley Street's ^
cobblestoned hill at a pace slow enough not to ^
shake too many bolts from Van Ella Fitzgerald. I §
then came on to where I am now, the UGA Library. m
But I digress a tad.
"Wanassed Street... where do ya suppose such
a name came from?" I hear all 9,637 of you mut
ter in unison. Well, local historian Milton Leathers
suggested in an Augusta Chronicle article in 2001
that an old plat recorded it as "Unassigned." I. had
heard this before years ago, who knows where. It's
a fair bet that the plat-recording person's pen
manship was anything but exceptional: stands to
reason. But now I've said all that needs to be said
about Wanassed; I have other locales to visit to
graze my verbal cow.
places, like Kendene Street (off Cleveland Avenue) and Trilby
Street (off Oconee Street on Carr's Hill). I'll tell y'all about my
old house on Trilby Street (circa 1980) another time.
The map says that the street that runs off campus at the
first traffic light on South Lumpkin south of Broad Street is
Babcock Street... wrong-o! It's Bocock Street, named for Willis
Henry Bocock, professor of Greek at UGA from 1889 until his
retirement in 1945 and first dean of the graduate school,
which was created in 1910. He was born in Halifax Court
House, VA on Jan. 5, 1865 and died in Richmond, VA on Oct.
31, 1947. His wife was the former Bessie Friend (1866-1954).
Their daughter, Miss Natalie F. Bocock (1897-1985), was a sup
ply teacher when I was in high school.
Among reasonably well-known streets, we have both an
Easy Street (in Normaltown) and a Best Drive (not far away, off
Holman Avenue). Now, have y'all ever heard of Lakeview Street?
Ah, I thought not. That street is dear to me because my late
friend Cynthia Jarvis lived in an old mill house thereon. (She
nique Athens street names abound, as they
do in any sizeable city. Forbstein Alley in
the Newtown section is actually a misspell
ing: Casper Farbstein, born Jan. 1, 1889 in Athens
(and died in May 1978 in Beaufort, SC) apparently
owned quite a bit of rental property in that sec
tion of Athens; we can presume that the street
was named for him. It is the closest street to the
Athens-Clarke drinking water treatment plant, by
the way.
We have a Rear First Street over in East Athens.
(It is indeed behind a block of First Street just
before that morphs into Strickland Street.) Athens
possesses a Little Oak Street that runs parallel to
Oak Street on the other side of the old Georgia
Railroad track. There is also a Little Oconee Street
that runs for a short block up on Carr's Hill. I
remember delivering a pizza there years ago, and
the guy on the phone was amazed that I knew
where it was.
I mentioned First Street (and Rear First Street,
too!). Well, there also is a Second Street, a Third
Street, a Fourth Street and a Fifth Street. In amongst those,
between Third and Fourth, lies Odd Street. Yes, it is odd that
it is there, but it apparently was cut through after the others
already existed.
When the Seaboard Air Line Railroad trestle across the North
Oconee River was rebuilt sometime circa 1920, Fifth Street was
cut in half. The northern end was rerouted into North Avenue;
the orphaned townward section later became Tiller Court (after
a family who lived there), but it is now abandoned, and rather
resembles a kudzu patch.
nother such abandoned-but-visible street is Maria
Street, which ran from Arch Street to Vine Street
between Herman Street and North Peter Street. My old
schoolmate Myron White lived in the.two-story house that *
was then numbered as on Maria Street... I suppose it's a Vine
Street address now.
Not far from there is Rear Arch Street. It seems like a very
insignificant street from all appearances, but I'll bet it isn't
to local cab drivers, who get paid to know all these obscure
Wanassed Orten Carlton = ORT?
married my friend John Seawright; both of them left us far too
soon and will surely be the subject of future writing.) There
is no lake in evidence on Lakeview Street, but there used to
be one there... its spillway provided power for the Athens
Electric Street Railway Co. cars that ran from downtown out
Barber Street to Boulevard and west You can still see the
"turnaround" tracks in the pavement on Boulevard if you know
where to look.
Nine hundred-plus words written and I'm only scratching
the surface. Gee. Well, I'll leave you with one more special
little street, because it's the last unpaved (partly) city street
I know of: Kesler Street, which runs from Boulevard back to
Yonah Avenue between Satula Avenue and Buena Vista. Go
enjoy its gravelled crunchiness for yourself/ves.
Next installment (whenever I write it!), I'll regale you
regards Valley Street, Cloverhurst Place, Hill Chapel Street,
Pottery Street and a dozen others. But by now I've done said
what I Wanassed, and that's that. (30.)
William Orten Carlton
Strand Hair Studio
5 Points
michael
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AUGUST 26, 2009-FLAGPOLE.COM
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