EAST SPENCER — The town of East Spencer unveiled the road signs for the recently-renamed Hillian Road in front of a crowd that included the students of Essie Academy and the late Alderman Tony Hillian’s family.

The road, formerly know as Robin Circle, was renamed to honor Tony after he died in 2022. Tony’s father, Sam Hillian Jr., said that they have been working to get the residents to approve the name change and to get the town to rename for a while.

“We went up and down this road asking people to sign for the name change. By the end, we had 10 of the 13 houses on this road that signed for it,” said Sam.

Hillian Road is now just around the corner from the street named after his maternal grandmother, Essie K. Foxx. Hillian Road also runs alongside the Dunbar Center. At the corner of Hillian Road and South Long Street is the Southern City Tabernacle African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, of which Tony was a member until his death.

Tony served on the board of the Essie Academy while it was the Essie Mae Kiser Foxx Charter School. His mother, Jacqueline Hillian, now works for the school as a teacher and a bus driver. Jacqueline said that she wanted the students to be present at the unveiling so that they could witness and understand a piece of East Spencer’s history.

After the sign at the corner of North Long Street was unveiled, members of the crowd released balloons into the air as a celebration of life for Tony.

The town’s board of aldermen voted to change the name of the road during their October meeting after public discussion about how best to honor the man who championed “the 28039,” a reference to the town’s zip code.

Tony had a long list of accomplishments, some of which include receiving the Mayor’s Medal from then-Salisbury Mayor Margaret Kluttz, was named to the BET Top 10 Teens around America and received the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award.