The joint task force between the City of Bloomington and IU, convened by Mayor John Hamilton to recommend new names for Jordan Avenue, has completed its report.
The unanimous recommendations for the road’s two sections are “Eagleson Avenue” for the city owned section of Jordan from Davis Street to 17th Street and “Fuller Lane” or “Mattie Fuller Lane” for the university owned section from 17th Street to Fee Lane, according to the release.
The first name recommendation honors the Eagleson family, the release said, a Bloomington family of four generations whose members have made significant contributions to the city, university, state and county, starting with Halson Vashon Eagleson who was born into slavery and came to Bloomington in the 1880s.
The second recommendation honors Mattie Jacobs Fuller who, after being born into slavery in Kentucky, became a lifelong resident of Bloomington at age four. She was a successful business woman and suffragist who made the donation that founded Bethel AME Church, according to the release.
The Renaming Task Force reviewed more than 500 names submitted to the city’s website by members of the public.
The task force based its selection on the criteria that the streets be named in honor of people who were longtime Monroe County residents, made significant contributions to the community and had not already received significant city and university honors and awards.
City and university officials requested the two streets have separate names because they are not contiguous. The task force also recommended that historical markers be installed providing biographical information about the street’s namesakes.
Formal renaming of the streets is the responsibility of the Bloomington Plan Commission, which will hear the proposed names and take public comment at a public hearing, and of the IU Naming Committee and IU Board of Trustees.
A notice of the proposed names will be sent at least 30 days before the hearing to all affected property owners and residents. The Plan Commission will adopt a resolution establishing new names which will go into effect no sooner than 90 days after the vote, according to the release.
The IU Board of Trustees voted to rename Jordan Hall, the Jordan River, the Jordan parking garage and a section of North Jordan Avenue in October 2020. They are now named Biology Building, Campus River and East Parking Garage, respectively.
Seventh president of IU, David Starr Jordan, was at the forefront of the American eugenics movement and advocated for forced sterilization legislation. American eugenics has been acknowledged as an influence on the racial theories that led to the Holocaust, according to the release.
