A stretch of road between East Fordham Road and Allerton Avenue, known for the last three decades as Dr. Theodore L. Kazimiroff Boulevard, was renamed last week and restored to its original title — Southern Boulevard — a rare act by the city of revoking an honorary street name.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed the change into law on April 11. According to a New York Times report, officials at Fordham University and the New York Botanical Garden, both located near the portion of road being renamed, argued that the name Kazimiroff Boulevard confused travelers trying to visit the institutions.

The street will now be “co-named,” according to a statement from the mayor’s office.

Dr. Theodore L. Kazimiroff, a Manhattan College graduate and Bronx resident, was best known during his lifetime for fighting to protect ecosystems in Pelham Bay Park, City Island and other Bronx neighborhoods.

A practicing dentist, he was also the first ever Bronx borough historian and helped co-found the Bronx County Historical Society. He died in 1980, and a year later, the section of Southern Boulevard was renamed in his honor. Kazimiroff’s 95-year-old widow, Emelia Kazimiroff, who lives on East 201st Street, said she was shocked to hear about the change.
“My reaction was one of surprise, but I have no control over that,” she said during a phone interview.

“It was very nice while it was there, wasn’t it?”

A nature trail that winds through Pelham Bay Park, however, still bears the late Bronx doctor’s name.