The Rock Hill Herald reported on Aug. 11, 1887 – “The City Council plans name changes for streets in Rock Hill. The street named in honor of Gov. Hampton will now be named Columbia Avenue. Johnston Street in the west end, named for Dr. T.L. Johnston will now be named Magnolia Street. On Aug. 18th a survey of citizens showed wide spread opposition to changing the name of these streets. We ask city council to abandon these name changes.”
The Herald reported on April 5, 1888 – “The Town Council of Rock Hill has decided the change the names of streets back to there original names prior to the changes made last year. This means that Columbia Ave., will be changed back to Hampton Street, Magnolia Street back to Johnston Street, Chestnut back to Moore Street, Pearl Street back to Caldwell Street, and Liberty back to Wilson Street. They will also recommend that White Steet be extended to the eastern extremity of town and that Clay Street will stop at the intersection with White Street opposite the residence of A.H. White.”
The Rock Hill Herald reported on Oct. 1, 1940 – “The City officially changed the name of Lancaster Ave., between Oakland to Cherry Park to the new name of Eden Terrace. The name of Columbia Avenue between Oakland and Charlotte Ave., is now Myrtle Drive to match the existing name on the north of Charlotte Avenue.”
SOME HISTORIC STREET NAMES IN AND AROUND ROCK HILL The delightful periodical Names In South Carolina was published by Claude and Irene Neuffer in Columbia from the 1950s into the 1980s. Much of the material in this article is taken from “Names in Rock Hill and Environs” by John A. Bigham in the Winter 1983 edition and from Douglas Summers Brown’s City Without Cobwebs.
Rock Hill, like most communities, has many street names which provide clues to our history. Some roads were in existence long before Rock Hill came about. A small piece of Nations Ford Road exists north of Rock Hill. This was part of an ancient Indian trading path which can be documented back to the 1650s and became a main route for traders and later settlers heading south from Pennsylvania and Virginia. This traffic was funneled into a crossing point on the Catawba River known as Nation Ford for the Catawba Indian Nation. Saluda Street formed part of the old Saluda Trail which led from Nation Ford to the territory of the Saluda Indians in central South Carolina. West of Rock Hill off Eastview Road there still exists a fragment of the Old Landsford Road which led from York to the crossing of the river at Landsford in Chester County. Ebenezer Road led to the village of Ebenezer, a thriving academic and farming community in the early 1800s and now part of Rock Hill. Other nearby roads took the name of plantations. Mount Gallant Road was named for the home of Col. Cadwalader Jones which stood at the current site of the Rock Hill School District administration building. Sprinsteen Road, east of Rock Hill, passes through Springsteen plantation, once owned by members of the Springs family. The family’s original Dutch name was Springsteen.
Many streets in Rock Hill were named for the first families who settled the city. We are all familiar with Black Street and White Street. These have nothing to do with the race of their occupants. Alexander Templeton Black was the landholder for most of the land on the south side of Main Street, and he persuaded the backers of the railroad to locate the line through his property. The George Pendleton and Ann White family, builders of the White Home, owned the property on the north side of Main Street. Black Street was originally called Church Street because a lot for a church was laid out on it. Main Street was the original single street on the initial plat of Rock Hill laid out on November 6 and 7, 1851 containing 24 lots leading east from the rail line.
Marion Street was part of an early subdivision south of downtown known as Woodland Park developed beginning in 1906 by James Spratt White. It was named for the oldest daughter of Dr. J. B. Johnston, Marion. Dr. Johnston owned most of the land on the western end of the street, and nearby Johnston Street was named for the family. An unusual street name is Annafrel Street, located in eastern Rock Hill. Dr. Robert Harvey Hope moved to Rock Hill in 1859 and built a home in a grove of oak trees on East White Street. He later opened a street leading from the front of his house to the new Industrial Mill. He named it for his daughter Anna and her husband Frel Mobley, combining their first names.
The Herald reported on July 2, 1902 – “Mr. Frel Mobley has left for a large job. He has the contract for grading a railroad of 230 miles between Ga. and Florida.”
One of the most prominent streets in Rock Hill is Cherry Road. While we think of it as a congested thoroughfare, it has an interesting history. In 1900, it was designed by William White Miller, a civil engineer, as the first large-scale hard surfaced road in South Carolina. It was famous throughout the southeast. Cherry Road was named for James M. Cherry, through whose farm it passed as it led from Rock Hill to the Catawba River. Cherry donated the right of way and funds for the surfacing of the road. The presence of Cherry Road as a major thoroughfare as the automobile age dawned gave an early example of how transportation planning can influence urban development.
Oakland Avenue is one of the most visible streets in Rock Hill. It was named for Oakland, California. William Blackburn Wilson was a leader in Rock Hill in the late 1800s in the legal, political, and business fields. On a family trip to California in 1891, he greatly admired the city of Oakland, which had grand boulevards planted in oak trees. He put together a group of investors known as the Rock Hill Land and Town Site Company, and they bought up land and proposed a huge new development to be called Oakland. Oakland Avenue was designed as a boulevard to connect the development to downtown. In 1895, the company provided the site for the relocation of Winthrop College to Rock Hill. That site was originally intended to be a park for Oakland, and Park Avenue runs through the area. College Avenue parallels Oakland, and several other streets in the area are named for cities in South Carolina. These include Union, Aiken, Sumter, Columbia, Lancaster and Chester. Oakland Avenue originally ended at Trade Street, but was later extended to the downtown area to provide a more direct connection. Trade Street was named Railroad Street in Rock Hill’s early years, because it paralleled the rail line. It housed a bustling commercial area until the Model Cities program in the 1960s resulted in the demolition of a large number of structures and the reconfiguration of Trade Street to become Dave Lyle Boulevard, named for the Mayor during the period. These changes not only rerouted the street and resulted in the loss of Rock Hill’s unique two-level train depot, but also removed the small flint rock hill that had given the town its name in 1851.
A number of streets are named for national or state political and military figures. After World War II, there was a great demand for housing for returning veterans and their new families. Joe H. White developed an area near the Winthrop Farm which honored World War II generals. Now across from the Winthrop Coliseum, it includes streets named for Generals Eisenhower, Patton, MacArthur, Bradley, and McNair. Streets from an earlier period were named for South Carolina and Confederate leaders, including Lee Street, Calhoun Street, and Stonewall Avenue and Court. During the campaign for Governor in 1876, General Wade Hampton entered Rock Hill with his Red Shirt campaign on October 12. Following his visit, the street he paraded down was renamed Hampton Street. Today’s Confederate Avenue was originally named Academy Street, because it dead-ended into the site of one of the early schools in Rock Hill on Black Street. The school site later became Central School and is now the site of the early childhood development center.
Just because you live on Lucky Lane or Lucky Court, both located off Green Street, it doesn’t mean you will live a charmed life. They were named for Dorcas Anne Luckey, who married Dr. Thomas L. Johnston, a member of the first City Council. At some point the “e” was dropped from her name. And if you head for Barber Memorial Cemetery, off of West Main Street, you will travel along Soulsville Street. That’s good street naming!
Contributed and written by Paul M. Gettys of Rock Hill, S.C. for R&R with information from various articles in the Herald by Eliz. Reed and J.S. White.
The Herald reported on May 6, 1922 – “City Council voted yesterday to change the name of Academy Street from Central School north to beyond the City Park, to Confederate Avenue.”
The Rock Hill Herald reported on Nov. 22, 1941 – Academy Street History “Named for the Rock Hill Graded School built in 1888. The name was changed later to Confederate Ave., when Mrs. A.H. White (Hattie), gave the land which became Confederate Park and the UDC erected the Confederate Monument.” (James Spratt White Memories)
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