Name Change

There is an apartment complex that is close to where I live that has changed names many times. I live in a place called Floyd Knobs and these are a range of foothills on the edge of the Ohio River valley. This apartment complex is situated at the base of the hills, but it is still elevated. It has changed its name four times and its name changes include the following: Tree-tops, View Point, Stone Ridge, and Knobs Point. This apartment complex does not attract the best clients. It houses drug dealers and other shady members of society. Fires and murder are fairly frequent in the apartments. Every time there is a fire or murder, the name of the apartment complex seems to change.

As a result of its many different names, people use the different names depending on when they first heard about the apartments. For example, my mother remembers when the apartments were built and called by their first name, Tree-tops. She still refers to them by this name. On the other hand, when my family and I moved and we were close to them, they were called Stone Ridge apartments. This is what I refer to them as. Even the fire fighters refer to them by a different name. Since there have been so many fires at the apartments, the fire fighters refer to them as “Fire Mountain.”

All the different names of these apartments have become confusing. Sometimes when my mother is giving directions to our house, she uses these apartments as a reference. She will call it by its first name, Tree-tops, and people will be confused and ask where that is. She then refers to it by its other names and the person will realize what she is talking about.

It has almost become a joke how many times they change names. There is not even a really good reason for it. The same people have owned the complex since they built it, so it has not changed names because of new ownership. The name changes seem like they may try to signify new starts for the apartments, but the complex stills runs into the same problems with fire and murder. This shows that a place does not change just because its name does.