On Sunday, Lee District Supervisor Rodney Lusk tweeted a statement saying “the time has come to change the name of Lee District.”
Lusk initiated the process to rename the district because of its association with the Confederacy and slavery. While it is uncertain exactly which member of the Lee family the district was named after, it is commonly associated with Confederate general and slave-holder Robert E. Lee. The new proposed name is Franconia.
Lusk’s office hosted three community engagement meetings on the potential name change this year, during which he said he learned that the majority of people were in favor of the change. The discussion began around the same time that the names of many other sites in Fairfax County and around the country are in the process of being renamed because of their connections with Confederacy and slavery.
In March, Fairfax County’s Redistricting Advisory Committee recommended the district be renamed. “Whether the Lee name attributed to Lee District is or is not Robert E. Lee is immaterial if the Board of Supervisors is to change names associated with the Confederacy but leaves in place a name which will cause confusion because of ambiguity,” read the committee’s report.
In his statement, Lusk said that community feedback and the Redistricting Advisory Committee’s recommendation impacted his decision to rename the district. To this end, Lusk will make a motion at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting to rename Lee District to Franconia District.
“Franconia is a name that is synonymous with our community. From Franconia Road, the Franconia Springfield Metro, the Franconia Museum, and the Franconia Governmental Center, the name Franconia has always been central to our identity. It is also a name that memorialized a place and not a person,” Lusk said in his statement.
According to the Historical Marker Database, Franconia takes its name from “Frankhonia Farm,” a 191-acre farm purchased by Alexandria businessman William Fowl in 1859. In 1871, a portion of the land was sold to build a railway station which was named after the farm.
Lusk’s full statement on the name change is here.
