Bloomington, Indiana – Last September Bloomington’s city plan commission approved the official name change of a north-south street that cuts through the Indiana University campus on Tuesday, Feb. 1.
On Monday crews from the street division of the city’s public works department were out installing signs that say Eagleson Avenue, which honors four generations of a local Black family.
The lineage started with Halson Vashon Eagleson, Sr. who was born a slave and arrived in Bloomington in the 1880s.
The street crews were swapping out signs with the old name, Jordan Avenue. The street had been named after David Starr Jordan, who was Indiana University’s president from 1885 to 1891.
From April through July of 2021, a joint IU and city task force worked on the Jordan Avenue renaming. In July 2021, a report recommending the renaming of the street to honor the Eaglesons was delivered by the task force.
