Our History

In the early 1970s, low-income Asian immigrants in the International District had few options when they needed to see a doctor who spoke their language. At the time, the only community clinic in the area was the Pioneer Square Neighborhood Health Station, which was too far for most elderly Chinese and Filipinos to reach by foot.

With the construction of I-5 in the 1960s and the Kingdome in the 1970s threatening to uproot homes and businesses in the area, the International District (ID) seemed like an unlikely place to launch a medical practice. But in 1973, a group of dedicated community advocates, including Heide Parreño, Bruce Miyahara, Bob Santos, and a host of others—began their struggle to bring culturally appropriate medical services to the neighborhood.

Dr. Eugene Ko, owner and manager of the Jefferson Park Clinic in Beacon Hill, donated space for the advocates to establish the Asian Community Health Clinic, which would provide basic in-language health care to mainly elderly Chinese and Filipino patients in Beacon Hill and the surrounding neighborhoods. Volunteer doctors, interpreters, and mental health staff operated the Asian Community Health Clinic out of the Jefferson Park Clinic on Tuesday nights, and eventually on Saturday mornings.

In 1975, the Asian Community Health Clinic moved to its own location in the International District, and the International District (ID) Community Health Center was born. The ID Clinic, as it still popularly known, was the first of its kind in the nation to serve a diverse Asian population at one site.

In 1996, the Board of Directors and staff decided to expand the scope of the ID Clinic’s services beyond the International District, to South Seattle. The clinic changed its name to International Community Health Services (ICHS), to reflect the addition of a second clinic location, the Holly Park Medical & Dental Clinic, and to reflect the increasing diversity of the patients being served.

The Holly Park site quickly drew a large client base. By 2003, ICHS realized the need to relocate to a larger facility to accommodate the growing number of patients. The construction of light rail forced an earlier move for the clinic. On January 10, 2005, ICHS opened the doors to its new Holly Park Medical & Dental Clinic on South Othello Street, just blocks away from the old location.

Today ICHS is proud to have a multicultural and multilingual staff that provides culturally-appropriate and in-language health services to our patients.