The Alexandria City Council on Saturday unanimously approved a plan to change the name of Jefferson Davis Highway (Route 1 in Alexandria).
Starting Jan. 1, 2019, the road will be called Richmond Highway.
It may cost the city $27,000 to change the major road signs along the almost 2-mile stretch of roadway. The delay until January will give businesses and homes along the route time to communicate the change.
The process took 3 years of public input on possible names and whether it should be changed. The City Council established an Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Confederate Memorials and Street Names in 2015, and directed the then-city manager to start the renaming process in 2016. After another Ad Hoc Committee was formed and collected public input.
A survey of residents in 2017 unearthed the following suggestions for names (these were suggested by at least 100 people each and was not meant to be a list of "finalists"):
- Abraham Lincoln
- Alexandria-Arlington
- Barack Obama
- Heather Heyer
- Mildred and Richard Loving
- Patrick Henry
- Richmond
- U.S. Route 1
Jefferson Davis was the first (and only) President of the Confederate States between 1861 and 1865.
