Hilltop Residents Rebel Against Contagious Hospital
A bombshell announcement that contagious disease wards would be built at the county hospital site ignited a neighborhood protest.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Pacific Heights is on the warpath. The announcement last night that the county commissioners had agreed to place three contagious hospitals at the county hospital site was like a bombshell exploding on the hilltop. In less than an hour after the newspapers were out, the whole hill section was out for gore. A meeting has been called for tomorrow night at the club house and there promises to be a warm time. The citizens declare they do not intend to be made the dumping place for all the contagion of the city. Councilman Ranck stated, 'That is no place for contagious wards. Let them put such things in the North End if they want them in town. We don't want them. A contagious hospital should be isolated. Here people have invested their money for homes and they do not want contagious hospitals around.' The commissioners were bombarded by telephone all that evening with remonstrances by the hilltop people.
“The citizens declare they do not intend to be made the dumping place for all the contagion of the city.”
This 1909 NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) protest over the location of essential public health infrastructure reflects the enduring tension between city-wide needs and neighborhood resistance—a dynamic that remains a central friction point in Tacoma's planning and zoning debates today.
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