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When the street name changes go into effect, residents will have to update their address for vehicle registrations, Social Security for Medicare benefits, financial services and subscriptions. Driver’s license, state IDs, and passports do not need to be updated until the next expiration. Residents should notify the IRS or their tax advisor by putting the new address on their next tax filing and on Form 8822. Wills and trusts will not have to be updated, although the city will provided a certified letter as an addendum to a will or trust if requested.

The city will update residents’ address change with the U.S. Postal Service, personal property tax, land records and permits, utilities (AlexRenew, Dominion Energy, Comcast, Ting and Washington Gas), voter registration, Alexandria City Public Schools and emergency services (Alexandria Police Department, Alexandria Fire Department, 311 and 911).

Several businesses will be impacted — a hotel on Breckenridge Street, and two convenience stores, a dry cleaner, a Chinese restaurant on South Jordan Street and an estimated 28 home-based businesses. Businesses will need to change their addresses for internet and map business listings, websites, business cards, promotional items, social media, directory listings and certifications.

Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson had proposed the new process to streamline renamings of streets with Confederate references in early 2023. Under the renaming process, three streets will be renamed each year after public hearings. The process is expected to take 15 years due to the number of streets with Confederate references. The first streets for renaming were recommended to the full City Council 3-0 by its Naming Committee, made up of Councilmembers John Taylor Chapman, Sarah Bagley and Alyia Gaskins.

Office of Historic Alexandria research found at least 40 streets in Alexandria have Confederate names, and other street names are being evaluated for potential Confederate references. Many of these streets were named under a 1953 ordinance to establish street names honoring Confederate military officials for north-south running streets.

Residents testified or wrote to City Council about the street name changes and the impact on their neighborhood.

Fran Vogel, a 20-year resident of Early Street, said residents of North and South Early Street wanted to find a way to keeping the name.

“We still bear the burden of effort, time and cost of change of address which is considerable,” said Vogel. “That said, renaming early with the spelling e-a-r-l-e-y preserves the sense of place. It eradicates the association with the Confederacy, giving new meaning that is unrelated to Civil War history and results in a change all can embrace. Residents will know who the street is named for and Lt. Col. Early’s legacy.”

John McKinnon, who lives near Jordan Street, said rededication is a better way to save the city money and put the funding instead toward resources like schools and public safety.

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“History is an important part of our city,” said McKinnon. “We need to realize and recognize that our city made a failure in naming the streets as such, but by rededication allows us to close those wounds. Most importantly, it allows us as a Democratic Party to admit that we created a negative history at the time because of the 1950s.”

Susan Cole said that her section of N. Early Street is in a different section of the city than Vogel’s N. Early Street neighborhood — one is off Duke Street and one is off Braddock Road. She said residents in her neighborhood believe their street was named by two Jewish men and had no connection to the city’s 1953 Confederate naming decision. Cole said by renaming the other section Earley Street and keeping their section as Early Street, it would help differentiate between the two.

“We also have elderly people on our street…but the issues that they are going to have and name changing this late in their life, and some of them do not have assistants for that. Personally I have a 90-year-old mother and a husband at home and I work full time. I am the caretaker to both of them. And I can’t even fathom trying to do a name change for all the documents for my mother and for my myself.”

City Council members expressed support for dedicating funds to help residents with the address changes.

“We need to help address that trepidation because I don’t want anybody in our city feeling imposed upon unnecessarily,” said Councilmember Kirk McPike. “And this is, I think, a challenge that we can handle a way that truly limits the deleterious impact on the lives of our residents.”

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