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‘Our organization is fully aware of how to spell Massachusetts’: Sign snafu raises eyebrows in DC
The organization responsible for the signs said the typo was likely due to a misprint in production.
From Gloucester to Scituate, Massachusetts has plenty of geographical names to stump even the best spelling bee champs.
Evidently, “Massachusetts” itself can also pose a challenge; banners on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington D.C. recently turned heads after an eagle-eyed passerby noticed a missing “s.”
“Massachusetts Avenue is spelled wrong on these new signs in DC,” journalist Spencer Allan Brooks wrote in a tweet Monday, alongside a photo of a banner reading “Massachusett Avenue NW.”
Massachusett, without the final “s,” is the name of a local Indigenous tribe that predates the colony — and later the state — that shared its name.
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The organization responsible for the signs, the Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District, told The Boston Globe this week that the typo was likely due to a misprint in production, after it had already approved the correct design.
“As the leader with overall accountability for all aspects of our organization’s operation, I fully accept 100% responsibility for this error,” president and CEO Kenyattah Robinson told the Globe in an email.
Robinson, once a Bay Stater himself, added: “Our organization is fully aware of how to spell Massachusetts.”
Mount Vernon Triangle CID is working with design and production vendors to identify how the error happened, and the signs will be removed and replaced “as soon as possible,” the Globe reported.
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This isn’t the first time D.C. has been in the spotlight for misspelled signage. Last year, another Twitter user noted that a street sign on Virginia Avenue mistakenly spelled the state as “Virgina.”
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