Council votes to change controversial road names
Designations reflect environment, history
Fox Chapel council has voted to replace names considered offensive on some of its roads and streets with names that highlight environmental protection and honor local residents.
Hemlock Hollow Road is the new name of Squaw Run. It’s named after the endangered native eastern hemlock tree that grows along the road and throughout the community. It is also the Pennsylvania state tree.
“We now officially have beautiful new names in place of the slur against Native American women that our community fought so hard to remove,” said Councilwoman Mandy Steele. “Hemlock was named after a tree that is threatened by an invasive insect. Council decided it was a great opportunity to work to save our beautiful hemlocks while respecting the guidance we received from our Native American residents to use a nature name.”
Hemlocks have been under attack from a nonnative insect called the hemlock woolly adelgid. Intervention is needed to prevent the threat to the trees. The insects look like tiny cotton balls that attach themselves at the base of the tree’s needles. According to the National Park Service, the hemlock woolly adelgid arrived in the United States in the 1920s and has since spread throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic.
“Hemlocks are really important in keeping stream water clean,” Ms. Steele said. “As a defining feature of the valley, the evergreen hemlocks are a very beautiful sight all year long.”
“Our trail system running the entire north-south length of Fox Chapel is now called the Eliza Fox Trail, a wonderful suggestion from a community member and our parks committee in honor of the woman that donated some of the original land to form Fox Chapel,” Ms. Steele said. “We are proud to honor a woman in our renaming.”
And Squaw Run Road East is now named Riding Meadow Road after the park located along it.
Riding Meadow Park is where, on March 20, the first day of spring, the Spring Lantern Forest Walk was held. Paths throughout the park were illuminated by people with candles and children who carried little lanterns as they explored the park during the second in a series of lantern- themed events hosted by the Fox Chapel Parks Conservancy.
“We’re so grateful to our community of Fox Chapel Parks Conservancy supporters, our energetic volunteers and our generous sponsors,” Ms. Steele said. “We had about 300 people from all over the area and raised nearly $20,000. It was awesome to see hundreds of community members out enjoying the woods under a starry sky.”
Fox Chapel’s natural areas are important to the whole region, she said, because conservation is vital to slowing the progression of climate change and mitigating the impacts of shifting weather patterns.
New Fox Chapel resident Rebecca Witt Cohen said her family was thrilled with the Spring Lantern Forest Walk. “We can’t wait for the next event.”
Borough resident Maurin Stone agreed. “It was a beautiful event! The kids loved having their own lanterns to carry, and they lit up Riding Meadow Park like fireflies. It was wonderful to see so many people out in support of our parks.”
As co-founder of the Fox Chapel Conservancy with Fox Chapel Mayor Alex Scott, Ms. Steele is also organizing the lantern festivals along the park trails. The Winter Lantern Installation in January at McCahill Park was the first to be set aglow by participants who donated to the conservancy.
Mr. Scott initiated this conservancy plan and, together with Wes Posvar, Fox Chapel Parks Commission chairman, introduced the concept of lantern events.
After Fox Chapel Council purchased its fifth park last spring, Hardie Valley Park, the borough has almost 350 contiguous acres of parkland.
Later this year, the Summer Lantern Fest at Hardie Valley Park will include a bonfire, music and refreshments at the end of a lantern-lit path, while the final event — the Fall Lantern Trail Illumination along the Trillium Trail — will include lights placed along the path to symbolize the wild trilliums that bloom there every spring.