Wed, Jan 14
|Tacoma
WACT Speaker Series | Tacoma's Lost Neighborhoods
Local Historian Michael Sean Sullivan will discuss the ethnic and geographic pockets of the city that have been removed by big public projects like I-5 and urban renewal, or that have faded away with relocation or migration to the suburbs.
Time & Location
Jan 14, 2026, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Tacoma, 565 Broadway, Tacoma, WA 98402, USA
About the event
Tacoma’s history is filled with the legacy of ethnically diverse neighborhoods, but their memory has been largely forgotten after residents were displaced by public projects such as Interstate 5.
Historian Michael Sullivan will focus on the history of Tacoma’s Hawthorne neighborhood/Puyallup Tribal campus and the working class neighborhoods erased by the Tacoma Mall. He’ll also examine the boarding house district between downtown and the Hilltop that was targeted by President Lynden B. Johnson’s Model Cities Program and federal urban renewal projects of the 1960s, in addition to delving into what happened in the McKinley Hill district after the closure of the Northern Pacific Hospital.
Michael Sean Sullivan is a public historian, writer, and historic preservationist. He has taught Pacific Northwest history at the University of Washington Tacoma for more than 20 years. Michael created the website TacomaHistory.live and co-produces the short form documentary series, Tacoma Home Movies. Michael co-founded the historic preservation firm, Artifacts Consulting, and he is an advisor to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Michael is Board Chairmen for HistoryLink (the online Encyclopedia of Washington State History) and serves on the Governor’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.
IMPORTANT: WACT is excited to hold our event at the historic McMenamins Spanish Ballroom at the Elks Temple! Follow the link to purchase tickets with McMenamins.