In 2020, a resident petitioned the city to rename the block-long Pike Street. The street is believed to have been named after Albert Pike, a Confederate officer during the Civil War, a leader of Masonic Freemasonry, an opponent of Black suffrage and possibly a leading member of the early Ku Klux Klan in Arkansas.
Fort Smith had also recently removed Pike’s name from one of its elementary schools and a street.
In Fayetteville, the name of Gecko Lane was chosen from a city list of pre-approved street names, and the City Council approved the change.
The addresses of only two homes on the short lane were affected.
Gecko Lane runs east-west between Park Avenue and Highland Avenue about a half block south of North Street.