May 20, 2025 —
On a stormy spring afternoon, more than 60 people gathered at Kate Mountain Recreation Park in the hamlet of Vermontville to celebrate the renaming of a nearby Adirondack hill once marked by a racial slur.
The remote ridge, which is tucked away a few miles off Route 3, has been renamed “Murry Hill” in honor of a 19th-century family of early Black settlers. The change, approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names in February, follows a grassroots campaign by local residents and historians to replace the former name, “Negro Hill,” with one that reflects the Adirondacks’ overlooked Black history.
“Striking these racist names from our town’s map, it’s been long overdue,” said town of Franklin council member Richard Brandt during the ceremony. “And what better thing to do than to name it for the Black settlers.”
Listen to the story on North Country Public Radio.