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Willie and Joyce Hellems, rows one and two, joined with others in the sanctuary of St. John The Baptist Church on 20th and J Street to pray for an end to the drug problem on Tacoma's Hilltop.
News/Eskenazi
Bruce Larson Photo

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This building at the corner of 19th and K is being offered for sale as a site for an Arco Convenience store.
News/Martin
Bill Hunter Photo

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Hilltop Area

SCAM (Sheridan, Cushman, Ainsworth, and M Street) neighborhood group members are shown picking up litter in the alleyway between South Sheridan and South M Street. It was the second annual clean up hosted by SCAM. “In addition to cleaning the alleys, the group has put pressure on neighborhood landlords to clear vacant lots of trash and high weeds and to demolish the remnants of partially raised structures.” Photo by staff member Jerry Buck.

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News/ National Night Out/ Hilltop Celebration and Prayer service.
Members of Safe Streets, and Hilltop neighbors joined their hands in prayer on the corner of S. 16th and L streets, where two Tacoma residents where shot and killed July 16th of 1990. The men, Scott Higley, and Chris Sherrod were remembered during a Hilltop celebration of National Night Out, with the theme "Sweep, Walk and Talk" for our neighborhood, or "SWAT." Two members of the gathered held hands and then placed a flower on the spot of the drug related shootings. Left to right in main pic are Randy Herrid, Sister Laura Neal, organizer of celebration, Father Bill Bichsel, and Theda Cherry.

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Prayers before sweeping up S. L Street, from left to right: Laura Neal, Theda Cherry, Priscilla Lisicich, and Lynitra Jackson. For Sandy Nelson story.
Melissa Stevenson Photo

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Hilltop (Home Ownership Program) Terence Thomas - Real-estate/Personal Banker, working with Evelyn Hargrove.

“Terence Thomas, a Seafirst real estate personal banker, talks with Evelyn Hargrove, one of the potential buyers, at a class Seafirst organized” to educate people about credit applications and real-estate transactions. Seafirst Bank, the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association, and the Tacoma Housing Authority organized a program to help low-income Pierce County residents purchase a home and revitalize Tacoma’s Hilltop Neighborhood.

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Hilltop (Home Ownership Program)

“One of the six houses in the Seafirst program awaits the remodelers’ hammers and saws.” Seafirst Bank, the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association, and the Tacoma Housing Authority organized a program to help low-income Pierce County residents purchase a home and revitalize Tacoma’s Hilltop Neighborhood. Four houses were purchased by the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association and two others were owned by the Tacoma Housing Authority. The Martin Luther King Housing Development served as the developer and remodel of all six homes while Seafirst Bank provided government backed loans to both agencies that would later be assumed by the buyers.

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Trying to keep 'K' Street safe, Morris McCollum, President of 'K' Street Boosters, far left, has customers and passers-by sign a petition to keep the Hilltop patrolled by the same officers on the crime management team task force for 'K' Street.
Pictured, from left, are McCollum, Diaetta Walker, Henrietta George, Mary Radziski, manager of New Look Clothing on 'K' Street, and Virginia Taylor. The children are Lashwanda Walker, 19 months, in stroller, and Lapaschia Walker, 4-years-old. Both are daughter of Diaetta Walker. They want the streets kept safe so they can shop and let their kids play in the area. (photo by David Brandt)

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Joe Haynes, cleaning up debris from a room of an apartment that he owns with his wife. Earlier in the day they had found that alleged addicts were living in the squalor.
Photo by David Yee

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Thirteen-year-old Jeffrey Colvin flashes the hand sign of the Crips. (See Story: Colvin is one of two teenagers interviewed who seem to watch and respect the gang members.)
K Street Story -- Amy Kunhardt

Taken for the Tacoma News Tribune article titled, "K Street Kids" Aug 19, 1988, Fri p.C1 (see "Hilltop Neighborhood 1988-1992"clipping file)

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Four-year-old Rochelle Atkins plays with a hula hoop at the People's Center playground on S. 15th and K Streets.
K Street Story -- Amy Kunhardt

Taken for the Tacoma News Tribune article titled, "K Street Kids" Aug 19, 1988, Fri p.C1 (see "Hilltop Neighborhood 1988-1992"clipping file)

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Five-year-old Aisha Bell (left) eats her lunch on the front steps of a neighbor's house, watched by her older sister Lashanda, 10 and her niece, Tenika Posey, 3. (Tenika is sister of Cool Papa.)
K Street Story -- Amy Kunhardt

Taken for the Tacoma News Tribune article titled, "K Street Kids" Aug 19, 1988, Fri p.C1 (see "Hilltop Neighborhood 1988-1992"clipping file)

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Her doll accompanies Aisha Bell most days as the 5-year-old plays in the S. 15th Street neighborhood.
K Street Story -- Amy Kunhardt

Taken for the Tacoma News Tribune article titled, "K Street Kids" Aug 19, 1988, Fri p.C1 (see "Hilltop Neighborhood 1988-1992"clipping file)

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Hilltop Area
Please credit photo by Russ Carmaile

Fenced area shows playground equipment along with a sign that reads: "A creative place for your child to stay when you must be gone. Hilltop Community Day Care Center, 1407 S. 'I' (Street). Hours: 6 am to 11 pm, Monday thru Friday".

Hilltop Library Planning Committee includes: front row, Bil Moss and Billie Johnstone; back row, Ellen Smith, Al Nurse and Linda Oliver. This group oral history interview was taken by dindria barrow on behalf of the Community Archives Center of the Tacoma Public Library at the Red Elm Cafe on October 13, 2022.

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Checking the net

Three men in suits hold the base of a ladder while two other men in suits stand on the ladder to check the net of a basketball hoop.

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Action Upward at Hilltop with story.
Photograph by Richards Studio

Three young children stand on either side on a man holding a basketball.

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Sewing Class Begins
Photograph by Jerry Buck

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Youth Center Remodel

Two construction workers stand on two planks of wood held up by sawhorses in order to use their hammers on a new ceiling.

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Ribbon Cutting

Oral history interview of Anna Howerton and Poulsen Vanya conducted on February 25th, 2023, as part of the Archiving South Tacoma Communities event located at the South Tacoma Branch

Oral history interview with Tacoma resident Chace Hunter conducted by dindria barrow on August 25, 2022. In this interview, Chace talks about his family immigrating to Hilltop, Tacoma in 1993, then moving to South Tacoma in 1998, graduating from Western Washington University as well as University of Washington-Tacoma and then buying a home in Hilltop as an adult. Chace’s family fled Cambodia to escape the Khmer Rouge and were refugees in Thailand before coming to Tacoma. He is bilingual and has been married to his husband for six years. Chace has a passion for poetry, psychology, non-profits and nursing. Chace fell in love with his HIV Prevention work and is now the executive director of the AIDS Housing Association of Tacoma (AHAT Homecare). AHAT Homecare provides 24-hour home care, affordable housing/case management, and rental vouchers to the local HIV+ community. To paraphrase Chace: “I love giving back to the community, especially during a time of houselessness, and helping to provide homes to people in need.”

MiShawn Cabrera, 2019 Hilltop Artists Ambassador, discusses his ongoing projects in the glass-blowing studio and his entry into glass-blowing as an art form.