The Grapevine you see today is a lot different than what some people remember growing up here decades ago. “I moved to Grapevine, we called it The Hill, in 1959,” Denton County Commissioner Bobbie Mitchell said. Mitchell, who now lives in Lewisville, was 9 years old when her father moved h er family to The Hill. She attended the segregated Turner School in the small Black community known as The Hill. Turner Road, Jones and Washington Streets made up the area.  “Everybody took care of everybody,” Mitchell said. “You know, we didn’t have anything, you know, but what we had, we shared.” Mitchell still attends her historic church in The Hill, Love Chapel, founded in 1930. “Small church, but spirit field,” Mitchell said. The roots of the once all Black community go even deeper.  Born in The Hill in 1929, Ruth Chambers is 96 years old.  Since she was born and raised here, she is the last living resident still living in The Hill. “It was a nice neighborhood,” Ruth Chambers said. “So, everybody had houses, and they were friendly.” Her grandfather bought the land where her house sits. The family still owns it. “They built houses the whole time with their hands and everything there,” Chambers said. “This right here will always be our home,” Chambers’ daughter Rosa Brewer said. Brewer added the family is blessed to still be connected to The Hill. Although the neighborhood is changing around them, they always want the history of the hill to be remembered. “A lot of people that are coming in buying, you know, this property and stuff, which that’s good, but they don’t know the history behind the hill,” Brewer said. “So, to me, if you know the history about where you’re going, then you appreciate it more.” Appreciation for an area that, although small, meant so much to the Black families who owned land and homes here during a different time. “I think it’s important that people come down and visit The Hill to see what God did because it wasn’t all about the people,” Mitchell said. “It was what God did. God made a way for us to make it and for that hill to flourish.” Over the generations, as time moves on, each of these women wants the past to be remembered by the future generations. “Always remember about right here,” Chambers said. “Then when I’m gone, they still come back here and remember about me.” “That’s just history,” Brewer said. “That’s what I want my kids to always remember. That this right here is just a homestead to us.” “The houses have changed,” Mitchell said. “The roads are fixed. But The Hill never changes.” ...read more read less