An area of Rock Creek Park is getting a new name.
The name of Melvin Hazen will be removed from the area of the park that bears his name, as well as the trail and community garden connected with it, the National Park Service said in a statement Wednesday.
Hazen was president of the D.C. Board of Commissioners from 1933 to 1941 — essentially the mayor of D.C. — and he was “instrumental in the displacement of Black residents from this area to create what is now Fort Reno Park,” the park service said.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s non-voting member of Congress, was one of several people who inspired the name change, the park service said.
So will there be a new name? That’s a little more complicated.
The naming of Melvin Hazen Park in 1942 was a park service decision, it said, so it was able to remove the name by itself. Naming the park “in honor of any person, group of persons, historic site or event” is the job of Congress, thanks to the Commemorative Works Act of 1986.
So the park service said it’ll get its generic name – Reservation 630.
Norton’s office said they know of no plans to name the park anything new.
