VERMONTVILLE — A commemoration and celebration of the newly renamed Murry Hill in the Town of Franklin will be held Saturday, May 17, at 4 p.m. at the Union Cemetery on state Route 3 in Vermontville.

Curt Stager will discuss the history of the Murry family and Civil War era Black settlers in the town of Franklin, and Tiffany Rea-Fisher will speak to the importance of the name change today, the ongoing challenges people of racial minorities face and the importance of diversity and respect in advancing vibrant, engaged communities in the present-day Adirondacks.

Murry Hill has now officially replaced the so-called Negro Hill. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names approved the proposal at its Feb. 9 meeting. The name change honors the Murry family, who were granted property on the hill by Gerrit Smith and were successful farmers in the town of Franklin.

The name change follows on the successful effort in 2023 led by Stager to designate a local stream, John Thomas Brook, after a Black pioneer in that town.

“This gives the adjacent hill a more appropriate name that acknowledges the African American family who owned part of it for their contribution to the community rather than for their skin color,” Stager said.

Following the commemoration at the cemetery, a celebration will take place at the Hex and Hop Brewery in Bloomingdale, with live music by The Murry Hill Rounders featuring Addison Bickford and Ben Hamelin.

Rea-Fisher, director of the Adirondack Diversity Initiative, is a performing artist, community organizer, and direct action activist. She is the first Black woman to serve as director of the Lake Placid School of Dance, where she has helped increase class participation and faculty diversity since 2017.

Stager is a scientist, educator and author whose research and outreach deals with climate change, human connections to the natural world and environmental history in Africa, the Adirondacks and elsewhere. He currently teaches natural sciences at Paul Smith’s College, where he holds the Draper-Lussi endowed Chair in paleoecology and lake ecology.

For more information, contact Richard Brandt at 518-637-6883 or adkbrandt@gmail.com.