Landmark Massachusetts Inn Changes Name

AMHERST, Mass. (AP) — A landmark Massachusetts hotel has changed its name for the first time in 92 years and distanced itself from the negative connotations of its former moniker.

Although the name change has been in the work for months, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reports that on Friday The Lord Jeffery Inn in Amherst officially became the Inn on Boltwood .

It had been known as The Lord Jeffery Inn since it opened in 1926.

But in August, inn owner Amherst College announced the change.

The new name removes associations with 18th century Gen. Jeffery Amherst, commander of British forces during the French and Indian War, who historians say suggested wiping out Native Americans by giving them blankets infected with smallpox.

The college stopped using Lord Jeffs as its unofficial athletic mascot in 2016.