Nancy Bondurant Jones will be submitting a regular column to the HarrisonburgTimes.com titled “Looking Back and Forth.”

Through centuries city lights have  not only offered  brighter nights but often reflect city culture.   For example in the Smithsonian magazine for January 2010,  David Martin quoted a 14^th Century homeowners association in the year 1365 regarding lighting:

Manor hath provided torches throughout the community for the convenience of all.  However, all torches must be extinguished by curfew and not reignited until the following dusk so as not to obscure viewing of God’s celestial firmament.

What a lovely reflection—though today the number of lights serve to dim sky views.  Yet lights have always been an symbol of proud growth.  Historian John Wayland gave Dec. 22, 1890, as the date electric lights were first turned on in Harrisonburg—streets unlisted:  “Globes suspended from chestnut poles of regulation size…out of the way of traffic. All to burn nightly, except when the moon is actually full and not cloudy.”
Harrisonburg had been officially designated an independent city in 1916 but it took decades later for neon signs and strings of electric lights to evoke that “city feeling.”

Yet in the mid-1930s, a dark horizon still marked rural nights.  Furthermore, as towns and cities gradually acquired more lights, a vast social gulf grew between those living in darkness with kerosene lamps their only lights while townsfolk sat blessed by electricity.

Amid the nation’s worse  financial depression, the President sought to lift Americans’ pride and to close the nation’s cultural divide.  The Rural Electrification Act was signed by Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt in May 1936.  Two years later, on Jan. 29, 1938, the Daily News-Record reported, “More than 97 rural homes in the western section of Rockingham Co. enjoyed electric lights and power for the first time Saturday night when 47 miles of the Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative lines were energized.”

In spite of some farmers’ fears of electric wires in their homes, on June 16, SVEC reported 118 miles had been energized the prior week for over 400 farms in West Rockingham County and Northwest Augusta Co.  By year’s end, the SVEC had served 1,825  local homes with current, and across the nation, similar growth drew farmers to praise their President.  One Tennessee,  farmer giving witness in church said: “Brothers and sisters, I want to tell you this:  The greatest thing on earth is to have the love of God in your heart—and the next greatest thing is to have electricity in your house.”

Modern Americans may agree if they ever think about it, taking electricity for granted  and complaining fiercely when a storm takes down their line. Yet they’re proudly aware that a modern “city” offers not only great conveniences, but also stylish decorative touches.  Since the 1930’s in many small towns across the nation, any Saturday night drew both country and city dwellers to greet friends, and all to marvel at neon signs and electric lights along Main Street or the passing parade of cars one way.  And electric lights were often followed by neon and fluorescent.  In 1941 Gus Julius remodeled his restaurant to full-time with fluorescent inside and neon along the street.  Newsweek magazine ran an article on this first restaurant in the nation completely lit by fluorescent lighting.

Today holiday nights still beckon those driving or strolling on Main Street.  Traffic now flows one way and  the once familiar large stores now line distant malls.

Yet current lights mark eateries, small shops and clubs  that beckon strollers along Main Street with foods, music, stylish miscellany plus art.    We even celebrate “First Fridays”  downtown for “art & music, shop & stroll, wine & dine” each month from April through October—city lights still reflecting city culture.

This post was submitted by Nancy Bondurant Jones.