Harvard Arnold Arboretum Renames Bussey Street to Flora Way in Honor of Enslaved Woman

Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum formally renamed Bussey Street — named after a merchant whose wealth came from slave-produced goods — to Flora Way at an unveiling ceremony Saturday.

The dedication comes after the Boston Public Improvement Commission approved the renaming on Oct. 10. The street’s new name honors Flora, an African-American woman who was enslaved by William Dudley, the grandson of former Massachusetts governor Thomas Dudley and the owner of an estate near the arboretum in the mid-1700s.

Speakers at the event included Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ’07, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology professor and Arnold Arboretum Director William “Ned” Friedman, and Harvard Vice Provost for Special Projects Sara N. Bleich, the head of the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery initiative.

“History is complex, and you need to acknowledge all of it,” Friedman said.

“We just want everyone to know history,” he added. “That’s what universities do, even if it’s history that you might say we should be unhappy with. It’s our job to unveil those truths.”

The push to rename Bussey Street began in early 2023 after Harvard’s Legacy of Slavery report found that the street’s previous namesake, Benjamin Bussey, had amassed his fortune off of goods produced by slave labor.

Local residents organized the Bussey Street Renaming Initiative Working Group to advocate for an alternative. After a voting process held among 498 Boston residents, Flora was chosen from five finalist nominations.

The Arnold Arboretum and the Boston’s Parks and Recreation Department both petitioned for a name change to the Boston City Council following the initiative, where it was formally supported by Boston City Councilors Enrique J. Pepén and Benjamin J. Weber.

Dedication attendees pose with the new Flora Way street sign. By Collin S. Fan

During the event, Bleich emphasized the need to remember history.

“The fact that we are dedicating the street to an enslaved woman who, before now, was known by so few, is a powerful reminder that Miss Flora mattered and that she is an important person in our history,” Bleich said.

“We can’t control the time at which we are born. We can’t control the circumstances into which we are born. But we can control how we remember our history,” she added.

Wu said that the memorial comes amid “a lot of reflection right now as a city about our history.”

“We don’t know very much about Miss Flora,” Wu said. “The representation of how much we don’t know about the people who lived, shaped, and contributed to the community that we’re able to enjoy today is, in and of itself, an important recognition as we continue to tell the stories of our history today for future generations.”

Despite renaming Bussey Street to Flora Way, the Arboretum will keep his name tied to its landscape through Bussey Hill, Bussey Brook, and Bussey Meadow.

During the ceremony, speakers acknowledged Bussey’s complex legacy. In an Oct. 10 post on their website, the Arboretum wrote that “the working group has taken care not to demonize Benjamin Bussey” despite his connections to slavery, recognizing his philanthropy allowed the Arnold Arboretum to exist.

After the official dedication, local resident and Harvard Extension School alum Andrea C. Spence performed a spiritual veneration of Flora by calling her name. The veneration was not officially part of the scheduled event.

“It was a little bit disconcerting for me as a Black person standing there and just realizing that as much as all the hard work that went into this and honoring everybody who contributed that there was not a spiritual element to honor and call her name,” Spence said.

Spence said that she hopes future events will incorporate more representation of Black culture.

“If you don’t have the right people at the table or part of the group,” she said, “you need to do some kind of outreach.”