Looking Back At Hillsdale

By Steve Alexander Reporter

West Mobile community has seen plenty of changes. Looking Back At Hillsdale

Published: Thu, November 06, 2008 - 5:28 pm Last Updated: Thu, November 06, 2008 - 5:50 pm

Steve Alexander

News Five's first autumn hometown tour profiles the Hillsdale community.
It was started in the 1950's and designed to provide affordable homes to African-Americans.
Now, Hillsdale is beginning a new chapter.
In 2005, more than 400 vacant homes owned by the University of South Alabama started being torn down.
The school said people had two years to find somewhere else to live.
But some people who owned homes in Hillsdale said they wanted to stay.
Felicio Ramos, who lived in Hillsdale, told News Five at the time, "I would like for them to find a developer, do it reasonably so that the taxpayers, so that the University of South Alabama, the state of Alabama, everybody could make some money."
University officials said they would look at options for the future.
In January of 2007, USA made a big announcement.
The school announced it was selling hundreds of the homes to a non-profit group that specializes in neighborhood revitalization.
That group was called DASH Gulf Coast.
The plan was to rebuild 24 of the existing homes and build 240 new ones.
The Executive Director of DASH, David Johnson, said at the time, "We will be building new homes. We will be conducting community building and organizing. We will be doing home ownership education and counseling."
Four months later, DASH officials unveiled three model homes.
The group bought more than 200 lots in Hillsdale to build new homes starting at around $95,000.
At that time, Mobile City Council Member Gina Gregory said, "This is a great day. Having these new homes out here for people to tour to bring in prospective home buyers to see what they can buy out here in Hillsdale just means the world."
And Hillsdale is continuing to put on a bright, new face for the future.