On October 10, the Boston Public Improvement Commission (PIC) approved the renaming of Bussey Street, which bisects the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University between Walter and South Streets, as the culmination of a two-year campaign by local Roslindale and Jamaica Plain activists and organizations. The street will be renamed Flora Way, to elevate the name of Flora, a Black woman enslaved in the local area during the 18th century.
Encouraged by the street’s two abutting entities—the Arnold Arboretum and the Boston Parks and Recreation Department—a working group of activists from local organizations came together to elicit community support and input for disassociating the street with the name of Benjamin Bussey. This action followed research published by Harvard University following its 2022 Presidential Initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery that identified Bussey as one of the five largest donors in the antebellum period connected to the slavery economy.
The working group selected five finalists from 20 nominations for community input. Flora and two other finalists were formerly enslaved people who lived in the vicinity of the Arboretum landscape more than 100 years before its founding. Flora was the clear choice of the 378 residents from the street’s contiguous neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain and Roslindale who submitted their input, as well as from an additional 120 citywide and statewide respondents.
Input from the community included comments that the new street name should not get lost in the casual association of “Flora” with plants and the Arboretum. To that end, the working group is committed to ensuring ongoing community education about slavery in the area and about Flora and her life as an enslaved person.
The working group has taken care not to demonize Benjamin Bussey for his role as a merchant who engaged in trade that supported and profited from slavery, as did many of his contemporaries. He was also a generous philanthropist, whose gift of his farm to Harvard eventually became a large part of Arboretum’s historical landscape some 30 years after his death. In recognition of his gift and with full knowledge of his complex legacy, the Arboretum will retain his name on three prominent parts of the Arboretum landscape: Bussey Hill, Bussey Brook, and Bussey Brook Meadow. A nearby railroad bridge will also retain his name.
The new name for the street will become official on Friday, October 25. A public dedication event will take place at 2:00 p.m. on the following day (Saturday, October 26) just inside the Arboretum’s Walter Street Gate, weather permitting. The PIC will inform public safety organizations and technology platforms to ensure a seamless transition to the new street name.