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City Council says it's time to change Faneuil Hall's name
By adamg on Wed, 10/25/2023 - 3:03pm
The Boston City Council today approved a resolution that calls on the city to change the name of Faneuil Hall because Peter Fanueil was a slave owner.
The measure does not force the Wu administration to do anything, but calls on her to establish a commission or other process to come up with another name for the city-owned historic building - and the mall behind it.
Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson (Roxbury), who proposed the resolution, said it was long past time for the city to reject the name of a man who enslaved and tortured Blacks.
She rejected the argument this would ignore a part of Boston history - she said the city could put up a plaque or a kiosk explaining the building's history, "without celebrating a rapist or a white supremacist or a slave owner or, you know, someone who was killing Black people and torturing Black people and purchasing and kidnapping Black people and supporting payments for a ship to enslave Black people."
She said that even aside from the systemic racism she said Black in Boston continue to experience, "symbols are important" and that too often, they simply tell white people, even "victims of violence in European countries," that they are welcome in Boston, that "they can be here and be free and then accomplish here," in a way that Black people simply are not told.
She said the building and marketplace's new name would be best left to whatever commission the city sets up, but she suggested either renaming it after a person who fought for freedom, such as Crispus Attucks or Frederick Douglass or after an ideal, such as Liberty or Freedom.
City councilors Frank Baker, Ed Flynn and Michael Flaherty voted against the resolution. Councilor Erin Murphy, who votes with those councilors on divisive issues, broke with them and voted for the measure. Also voting for it: Councilors Arroyo, Breadon, Coletta, Durkan, Fernandes Anderson, Lara, Louijeune, Mejia and Worrell.
Baker said that while he could disagree with some of what Fernandes Anderson said - unusually for him, he did not specify - he was not necessarily opposed to the idea, but rather that the resolution was simply too vague, for example, it left out the issue of naming - and deserved the sort of detailed discussion that could only happen in a council committee session, where frank and open exchanges are encouraged. Flynn and Flaherty did not discuss their reasons for voting no.
Arroyo said he would like to go even further than downtown, that it's equally past time to rename Maverick Square and Maverick station on the Blue Line because Samuel Maverick was as reprehensible as Faneuil.
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Whitney Hall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Whitney
She was an abolitionist, suffragist, poet and sculptor. She was born in Watertown and lived many years until her death in Boston. She was openly gay. She loved (and lived for years at a time) in Italy near Rome to learn the art there.
Many of her works are extremely well known: Leif Erickson on the Comm Ave Mall, Sam Adams in the US Capitol (the bronze replica of which is in Faneuil Hall itself!), Charles Sumner in Harvard Square...but sadly most people have no idea they're all by her or who she was.
Putting her name overtop of Faneuil's seems like an easy decision.
One Counterpoint
The underlying reason for the Leif Ericson statue is incredibly racist.
Ericsson fever swept over Boston and America in the late 1800's.
The thought process is that an Italian in service of Spain could not have possibly been the first European to get to North America. Theories were put forward that Nordic (we sometimes call them Aryans) were the first Europeans to get to North America. Thus there were all these Viking settlements here that somehow there is no trace of save for one place in Newfoundland.
The logic being that all those Sicilians showing up in American cities around that time could not have possibly beaten the WASPs to this part of the planet. Thus the racist theory that Vikings, yup, Vikings were first.
It has been covered here before. https://www.universalhub.com/2014/vikings-weston#comments
frankly she's not a significant enough figure
In Boston history for such a central place. Impressive work, but appears to have never put her ass in danger. She's more a candidate for her own Comm Ave statute.
Since Faneuil built and donated the hall to Boston, the threshold for changing the name and replacing it should be very high.
Crispus Attucks? Meh, the guy was a rowdy sailor who picked the right fight to die in. Not the same as conscious commitment to a cause and sober assumption of the risk of death.
Maybe Revere Hall, after Paul Revere AND his three grandsons who fought in the Civil War, two of whom were generals.
or Douglass Hall, after Frederick AND his two sons who were in the 54th Massachusetts
King Hall, after MLK, Jr and Mel King. bonus - irony of a place associated with Revolutionary War named King
What if we just rename Maverick Square….
…. after that great old ‘50s tv show staring James Garner?
It’s such a snazzy name and it’s always what came to my mind whenever Maverick Square was mentioned up until about a year ago when I learned about the Sam guy.
Crispus Attucks Hall is a great idea.
I'm with Lee (at least on the Crispus part)
A quick read of the NPS site on Attucks and I'm convinced that if Faneuil Hall is renamed, it should be Crispus Attucks Hall. https://www.nps.gov/people/crispus-attucks.htm
A pack of smokes
I just think that it was named after a pack of smokes.
I mean there's always a bunch of people smoking in the square... why not?
Lol!
You could be right.
Literally just now learning about Sam Maverick
I had no idea it was an actual last name. For renaming the hall at Quincy Market, I agree with Crispus Attucks, or maybe Sam Adams. Or "Cradle of Liberty Hall".
Sam Adams will get out through the wringer
He abhorred slavery but apparently inherited one. He went through paperwork to emancipate her but he did own one for a short while.
Agree with
Cradle of Liberty Hall. It honors everyone who advanced the cause of liberty during the Revolution and the Civil War
I’m going with Cradle of Liberty Hall …
… for the reason you put forward. There are many heroes big and small who fought for liberty and whose names are lost to history. This honors everyone.
How about
we name it after Samuel Maverick who Was killed in the Boston Massacre
Faneuil was a slave-trading POS, BUT. . .
. . .he’s gotten a free ride the last 190ish years with his name being inextricably linked to the “Cradle of Liberty” moniker, an honor he didn’t earn.
His name should not be further venerated, but on the other hand a simple name change runs the risk of letting him off easy for his crimes against humanity. Let’s make sure the Faneuil name rings out in infamy for as long as it rang out in parallel with “liberty.”
The guy did build that hall
It's not really named merely to honor him. He built it and named it after himself. The fact that he created this, makes me far less inclined to want to remove his name.
yup
I know that he built it and named it after himself. I am with you on maybe thats why it shouldn't be renamed, it was his building. So we're going to rename a building he built and donated to the city? Doesn't make sense to do that.
Even if it it is renamed, you will still have to explain that it was built by him but in 2023 some city council renamed it because they felt it was the right thing to do at the time. His name will still be attached to it.
Maybe the solution is to just bulldoze it and the mall. The building has no historical significance except that its old and from revolutionary times. Its not like the magna carta or constitution was written here or some battle was fought here. No, the building is just remnants of times gone by.
FWIW, the old state house has much more historical significance than Faneuil Hall.
You want to fix this? Tear it down, then build a community there. Either some housing or commercial space or community center or something. And give it all to black people and name it after one. That's how you fix the social justice issues with it. Take his land & building away, like the lives of the slaves he once owned.
But allowing it to stand, his name and history will always been attached to it, no matter what it says on tourist maps. And frankly, it's not going to change what people call it. That building is known worldwide as "Faneuil hall" and it will take decades or more to divest the name of it.
This already happens, just see Nubian Square and Indigenous People's Day to see how people now have a double name for it. It didn't stop people nor is it really effective in doing so. It looks good on bus maps and calendars, but it hasn't really stopped people. (except locals)
Are we sure Faneuil named it after himself?
Faneuil died before completion. Are we sure it wasn't an informal name that eventually morphed into a formal name?
The Boston Tea Party Museum claims (FWIW), "The large Boston market building was not named Faneuil Hall until after the death of Peter Faneuil in March 1743."
And to be a pedant, the "Faneuil Hall Marketplace" moniker did not appear until the 1970s. Many place names take on informal names like "the street leading to Dudley's estate" which is eventually codified into "Dudley St."
Boston Town Meeting Named Faneuil Hall in 1742
Excerpt here:
https://imgur.com/a/wXKNJtp
"Legislative Acts/Legal Proceedings." Boston News-Letter (Boston, Massachusetts), no. 2008, September 16, 1742: [2]. Readex: America's Historical Newspapers.
Let's not name it
after another person, who may in 100 years turn out to be unacceptable. Give it a descriptive name, whether it's Liberty, Freedom, Boston, or whatever.
Just call it "Beantown, USA"
The tourists will think it's cute and locals already avoid the suburban food court so nothing will be lost.
I hate these kind of changes
But “Liberty Hall” could have a back story from the get go. Home of liberty and whatnot.
The retail is at Quincy Market. That should be the name of the area.
Commonwealth Hall
that might be good
It's a low bar, but
good for Erin Murphy?
No more people!
Perhaps buildings should no longer be named for people so no one will feel offended.
not sure that no one “feeling offended”
is the actual goal here
It already has a second unofficial name
The Cradle of Liberty Hall. That would be simple.
What's the name of that cop
That shot out of the slide? Name it after him. Never forget.
Is Tania Going To Change Her Name?
She is very concerned about Peter Faneuil killing people and the negative connotation of that.
Yet, she's married to a convicted murderer and took his name.
Chutzpah!
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ma-supreme-judicial-court/1400348.html
Nubians had slaves too…
Nubians had slaves too… enough with the “guilt remaining” already!!!
Nubian was never about guilt
The tarred Dudley as a slaveowner without ever bothering to check to see if the claim was true. And the “proof” never materialized.
Thomas Dudley never enslaved Africans
He did however purchase a Scottish POW named John Rankin.
His son Gov. Joseph Dudley endlaved both a native child who died in his captivity and African-descended men, and Joseph’s sons Paul and William were slaveholders. Gov. Joseph Dudley conspired with son and AG Paul Dudley to traffic a fourteen-year-old enslaved boy named Cuffe/Joachim off of John Quelch’s pirate ship in 1704.
The Dudleys lived in house that was approximately where Guild Row is today, and, according to newspaper real estate ads, the area was known as Dudley Sq as early as 1826 (and there were still Dudleys who owned some of the original property).
It wasn’t until 1894 that the Aldermman proposed to codify it as “Governor Thomas Dudley Square,” so it seems plausible/likely that the Dudley Square name grew organically due to a two-century connection to the prominent family, and wasn’t named solely for Thomas Dudley on a whim.
This being Boston ...
,,, if it's renamed, it should be given a name that can be pronounced several different ways, so the tourists will remain confused.
And to further confuse the
And to further confuse the tourists let's rename Congress Street to Washington Street. That way the City of Boston would have a nice round number of 6 Washington Streets. Cabbies will thank us eventually. /s
Let’s just wait …
…. to see what the Washington Streets will be renamed.
As a slave holder and one who tried to use his waning political power to illegally extradite from NH an escaped slave belonging to his wife, his name could be next.
The other thing is. . .
. . .we all know there are five or so Washington Streets in Boston. It’s hard to make a case in 2023 anyone deserves five different street names after him.
And yes, it would be amazing if one of the Washington Streets was named to Ona Judge Way (Av, Blvd, etc.)
It's been Faneuil Hall since long before any of us were born
Nobody knows or cares who Peter Faneuil was. Leave the name alone.
Boy, have I got news for you...
https://alpha.mapjunction.com/?lat=42.3606970&lng=-71.0673054&clipperX=0...
Go crazy. Tell me everything that should and shouldn't be renamed based on what it was since long before we were all born.