The corner of Armand Hammer Boulevard and East High Street in Pottstown borough.
POTTSTOWN PA – Yet another attempt to rename a portion of Armand Hammer Boulevard that crosses Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township at its southwest corner has been rejected by the Board of Commissioners. This time, though, the request from the Pottstown branch of the NAACP came with something it previously lacked: acceptance of the idea by some boulevard businesses.
Commissioners last week (March 7, 2011) decided to nonetheless deny the latest of several pleas from Newstell Marable Sr., president of the Pottstown unit of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Marable has campaigned in recent years to change the highway’s name to honor slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“I don’t think it’s time for a change,” Commissioner James Kaiser said. “It’s only going to create an expense for businesses” on Armand Hammer to revise the address on their stationery, business cards, and other items, he added. His colleagues unanimously agreed; board President Jonathan Spadt, who was absent from the meeting, did not vote.
The board similarly said no to earlier requests by Marable, who last raised the subject in Lower Pottsgrove during September 2008. The boulevard crosses part of the borough of Pottstown as well, and Marable’s proposal has also been repeatedly denied by the borough council.
With his most recent e-mail inquiry to Spadt and township Manager Rodney Hawthorne, however, Marable obviously anticipated Kaiser’s concern. He wrote that he talked in advance with, and reportedly received agreement from, managers of three prominent businesses on Armand Hammer – the Aldi supermarket, Home Depot, and A.D. Moyer Lumber – for the name change.
The plaza where Home Depot, Aldi, and Eye Consultants of Pennsylvania are located.
Such agreements do not constitute ringing endorsements, nor do they represent a majority of businesses with an Armand Hammer address. But they are the first-ever indication of willingness by a handful of commercial taxpayers in what commissioners have long-promoted as “business-friendly” Lower Pottsgrove to even consider honoring King in such a manner.
A fourth business Marable contacted, Eye Consultants of Pennsylvania PC, did not agree to the change, he wrote.
The Pottstown NAACP believes that “renaming of Armand Hammer Boulevard to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard would highlight our area’s dedication to the values of justice and equality for all,” Marable wrote. King, who played a central role in civil rights leadership and for whom a federal holiday is observed in February, was assassinated April 4, 1968.
Related:
- Commissioners Again Reject Boulevard Name Change
- Proposal Could Put Two Names On Armand Hammer Blvd.
- Boulevard Name Remains The Same
Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ March 7 meeting):
- Commissioners Again Reject Boulevard Name Change
- To Those Who Dug Out, Lower Pottsgrove Salutes You
- Commissioners Approve Park Trail Bid Advertising
- Sprogels Run Park Project On Commissioners’ Agenda
If I am not mistaken, Mr. Marable has also petitioned Pottstown Borough officials to change the name of various streets to MLK Blvd. One official remarked snidely that the borough already has a “King”
street. And there is the rub and the irony.
To those who are familiar with Pottstown’s history the following will be old hat. But many outside those close circles are not aware of the origins and significance of the names of certain Pottstown
streets.
Pottstonians who have traveled thru Britain have noticed the street names in many of England’s small towns are similar to Pottstown’s street names. Primarily, the British town’s main street is typically named “High Street”. The next parallel street to the south of High Street is often named “Queen Street”, and that to the north is often “King Street”. Sound Familiar?
Recall that John Potts established Pottstown in 1752 as a town by a petition to the English Crown (HINT: Read the various historic marker signs as you enter the borough, e.g. on North Charlotte
Street at Mervine.). Mr. Potts was obviously either currying favor from England’s King George, or was wanting to make Pottstown seem like a town which could just as easily be situated in England
under the King’s pervue, rather than in far away Pennsylvania.
John Potts, went further and named several streets after well-known British monarchial families and districts: York and Hanover. Pottstown’s knowledgeable historians are in disagreement over
Charlotte Street’s royal namesake. Nonetheless, it has been the name of that street since 1752.
Here’s my quandary: We won our Independence from England in the 1770′s – 240-odd years ago – at great cost of life, blood and property. Why are we still paying homage to an English King, English
Queen and various other English entities which held the colonies in subjugation? Heck, these antiquated and unpatriotic street names should have been changed two centuries ago.
Ironically, Mr. Marable wants to change the name of a street, any street, to honor the great American civil rights activist, minister and patriot – the iconic Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Could
we not simply change the street signs on King Street to “ML King Jr St.” ??? Residents and businesses of that street could then update their documents, accounts, return address labels, etc. accordingly as it became convenient to do so, or as property ownership rolled over. In the meantime, the simlilarities of the old and new names would cause minimal confusion.
Could we not give King George a quite-belated, 250 years-overdue boot to his butt, and honor one man who did far more for America in his few years on Earth, than all the English kings & queens, past & modern, combined?
Mr. Marable, keep up the good fight, it is a worthy task,
PS. While they are at it, Pottstown’s foward-thinking burgesses should probably rename Hanover Street to “Hand-Over” Street until our similarly antiquated property-based school tax is finally
reformed. Then they can rename it to “Freedom-From-Unfair-Taxation Boulevard” to refullfill the promise of the American Revolutionary War. Put down your hot dog for a moment and think about that next 4th-of-July as you are watching the Rockets Red Glare over the Manatawy.
The Commissioners reason for not changing the name is a joke. They sound like a bunch of racists to me. jmo.
I can’t speak to their mindset, Bob, although “racist” is an awfully strong term I personally don’t think applies here. Again, JMO (Just My Opinion, for readers wondering about the acronym).
I can definitively say commissioners are “consistent,” though. The matter has come up three times in the 31 months I’ve been reporting on township meetings, and board members consistently oppose the name change on grounds that it would cost businesses on the boulevard money.
Thanks, both for your comment and for reading The Post.