Name: History Pub - Tacoma's Lost Neighborhoods
Start: 2026-01-14T19:00:00-08:00
Location: Spanish Ballroom

McMenamins and World Affairs Council of Tacoma present
History Pub
Tacoma’s Lost Neighborhoods
Presented by Michael Sullivan
Spanish Ballroom
McMenamins Elks Temple
January 14, 2026
7pm/doors 6pm
All ages welcome
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.