By Theresa Knapp 

In December, the Holliston Select Board unanimously approved a resident request to change the name of a portion of Lowland Street that is mostly residential. 

Town Administrator Travis Ahern said the official request for the name change was received in Town Hall in July 2023. He shared a graphic that highlighted the portion in question. 

“The section highlighted in red technically has two addresses on Lowland Street that would theoretically be impacted should the board choose to make a change, and those are between the intersection of Woodland Street and Lowland Street, and the intersection of Lowland Street and the Upper Charles Rail Trail.” 

Ahern said the name change would essentially differentiate the residential section of Lowland Street from the industrial section. 

Sara Baroud, who lives on the section in question and initiated the change, said she and her neighbor are “100 percent in favor of this name change” which they have been considering for quite some time. 

Baroud said, “We are pursuing this name change to differentiate the characteristics of the residential neighborhood from the industrial park. Those include things like different usage of the two zones and the roads, pedestrian/bicycle use, trail use versus the industrial use.” 

She said the petitioners had been thoughtful about the proposed new name – Fawn Road – “paying tribute to the many deer that we see crossing our street and crossing the trail.” 

Select Board member Ben Sparrell said, “I don’t have a problem with changing the name of the street, I hope it has some kind of impact here - that somebody who’s driving down and sees ‘Fawn Road’ (or whatever the name change becomes) has a second thought about going down in that particular direction, but I do have the concern that people will still go down there because of the GPS.” 

Select Board member Tina Hein said, “What I see are residents who are looking to create a sense of place; they’re trying to create a sense of community for their neighborhood….I would really encourage the community at large to see this as what I think we really embrace here in Holliston which is building community through creating a sense of space; and if a group of residents feel that a name change accomplishes that for their neighborhood, we should embrace that.”

Select Board Chair John Cronin also supported the name change. 

The board’s approval of the name change started a mandatory 30-day appeal period during which time any resident of the town could appeal the decision – that appeal period applies to any road that has had a certain name for more than 25 years.  

At a subsequent meeting on Jan. 17, Select Board Vice Chair Tina Hein reported there had been no appeals.