The City of Hilltop was incorporated in 1956. The city had a population of around 500 people, and Central Avenue was a two-lane dirt road. Today, Hilltop’s population has roughly doubled. (Provided)
The Little City with a Big Heart is marking a major milestone this year.
Hilltop, Minnesota — incorporated in 1956, population of 956 — will mark its 70th year with a celebration. An event was planned for June 23, but had to be postponed because of stormy weather. No new date has been set as of yet.
Hilltop has an unusual story. Terry Wiggin, the city’s Mayor, called the city a “unicorn,” a one-of-a-kind municipality.
It all goes back to the 1930s, when the area of the future city was a dairy farm. It later became the Oak Grove Riding Academy and Stables. There was even a golf course on the hill. At that point, the land was in Fridley Township, next to the city of Fridley.
Throughout America in the 1930s, as the Great Depression wore on, there was a need for inexpensive housing. By 1936, there were about 250,000 trailers in the U.S. housing nearly a million people. Trailer living boomed during the war as housing was needed for people working at wartime factories, such as the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant in Arden Hills.
Terry Wiggin, the city’s Mayor, called the city a “unicorn” because it is completely surrounded by Columbia Heights. As a result, the city was nearly named “Monaco” — in honor of a city-state completely surrounded by France. (Northeaster file, Mark Peterson)
In the 1940s, the first trailer park, Trailer City, was established in the future Hilltop, soon followed by Sunnyside Trailer Park. Among the residents were many former GIs and their families, home from World War II. At that point, Highway 65, or Central Avenue, was a two-lane dirt road.
In 1956, people in the two trailer parks were disturbed by the rumor that the township was planning on removing both parks and putting people out on the street. The residents, led by Trailer City owner Les Johnson, approached Columbia Heights about being annexed. Columbia Heights said no, citing an ordinance that forbids trailer homes.
Undeterred, Johnson circulated a petition to have the residents vote on incorporation. Columbia Heights retaliated by cutting off water to the would-be city six days before the vote.
The Hilltop people were not deterred and the incorporation vote passed 137-34. Suddenly, on May 4, 1956, Hilltop was Minnesota’s newest city, with a population of about 500. The city was named after a nearby drive-in movie theater.
The original size of the city was to be 80 acres, but drive-in theater owners opted out at the last minute, resulting in the city’s current size of 77 acres. The city is bounded by Central Avenue on the east, Monroe Street on the west, and 45th and 49th Avenues on the south and north.
Mayor Wiggin notes that in those early days, there was talk of naming the city “Monaco” after the city-state completely surrounded by France. But the incorporation papers had advanced too far to change the name.
Columbia Heights didn’t take the incorporation well, and soon annexed all the land around the new city. At one point, Columbia Heights threatened to cease all water and sewer service to Hilltop. Another bone of contention was a plan to open a liquor store in Hilltop that would compete with the Columbia Heights municipal store, which provided the city with one-third of its income.
Columbia Heights attempted to enforce an ordinance that forbid all liquor deliveries to Hilltop.
By 1959, Columbia Heights asked the Metropolitan Municipalities Council, the predecessor of the Metropolitan Council, to intervene, and the council asked State Attorney General Walter Mondale to contest the Hilltop charter to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Hilltop prevailed.
By 1961, the tensions between the cities grew worse as Hilltop welcomed the addition of a strip mall, grocery story, drug store, liquor store, motel and bowling alley. The bowling alley also had a liquor license. Some in Columbia Heights claimed the liquor licenses were illegal.
Mayor Terry Wiggin said Hilltop provides residents with “affordable living” in a great location: “It’s a good place for us to be. It’s centrally located. It has a small-town feeling inside a big metropolitan area.” (Mark Peterson)
Adding to the schism, Hilltop also contracted for fire protection from Fridley and began its own police department with a retired State Patrolman as chief and three part time officers. In the mid-1960s, Hilltop built its own water tower and began getting its water from Minneapolis. The little city’s population grew to over a thousand.
In 1968, the rivalry between the two cities eased when Hilltop Mayor Vivian Caeser and Columbia Heights Mayor Bruce Nawrocki convened a joint meeting of the city councils, and the two sides tried to find a peaceful path ahead.
Hilltop shut down its police department in 1972 when one of its officers drove the city’s only police car into a tree. Police service thereafter was purchased from the Heights.
But it was not smooth sailing for one of Minnesota’s smallest cities, as several incidents in the last quarter of the century brought major headlines and unwelcome notoriety to Hilltop. In 1970, a male mayor tried to replace a female city clerk because he thought males were more temperamentally suited to the position.
In 1976, there was a triple homicide in the city, and in 1980 three escaped convicts were found hiding in one of the city’s trailer homes. In 1987 there was a murder-suicide reported.
In 1991, City Manager Karen Danz, who had held the position for 20 years, was convicted of embezzling $200,000 from the city treasury. The incident almost drove the city into bankruptcy, but it was saved by an insurance settlement.
To top it all off, the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 1994 declared the city as “Tiny Hilltop Crime Capital,” after police records showed there were 131 serious crimes in the community, or about one crime per six persons.
Mayor Terry Wiggin
Mayor Wiggin said the city has come a long way since then.
The city has cycled through times of having either a host of children or a majority of older citizens. The higher population these days probably reflects in part the increasing number of kids in an emerging immigrant population.
Hilltop is not the smallest Minnesota city in population, or even close. Boy River and The Ranch have populations of three. In area, the city’s .12 square miles are larger than Biscay (.074), Manchester, (.075) and Landfall, a similar trailer park city near St. Paul (.083).
The city has 270 mobile homes, which these days are called manufactured homes. There are four manufactured home parks: Trailer City, Sunnyside, Hilltop Mobile Home Community and Hilltop Properties.
The city is also home to two Columbia Heights schools, Columbia Academy and Valley View Elementary. Mayor Wiggin said the schools don’t provide the city any tax money, but they are very welcome in the city. “Together they cover about one-third of the footprint of Hilltop. I don’t know any other city that has dedicated so much land to schools.”
Hilltop features 270 manufactured homes, including four dedicated parks: Trailer City, Sunnyside, Hilltop Mobile Home Community and Hilltop Properties. (Mark Peterson)
The city hall, constructed 20 years ago, was planned by the Hilltop Chamber of Commerce, and paid for by pull-tab money funds and other sources. Another city building is being planned at this point.
And the city has much more to offer. “It’s affordable living,” Wiggin said. “It’s a good place for us to be. It’s centrally located. It has a small-town feeling inside a big metropolitan area. Average people live in Hilltop, and they enjoy it.”
The planned 70th anniversary celebration, if it can be rescheduled, will feature local speakers, ice cream, a bounce house and much more.