South Tacoma Way has some spiffy public art. Today I stopped to admire this mural located at 5438 South Tacoma Way which features scenes from the strips past and present. The mural is on the Heritage Bank Building. Although that is the name of building, it is vacant with Heritage Bank is down the street at 5448 South Tacoma Avenue.
To see more photographs of the property both before and after the mural, go here.
http://www.tacomaculture.org/arts/murals.asp
After work today a group of us stopped at a relatively new place called D.O.A. (Dirty Oscar’s Annex) at 309 Sixth Avenue. We each got an appetizer and had a scrumptious fest! There was beer battered asparagus (my favorite), flat bread. two kinds of chicken wing, potato wedges and fries. All this wonderful food was very reasonably priced.
Here is a recent review
http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/entertainment/spew-blog/2011/01/dirty-ocars-annex-opens-in-tacoma/
I made a quick stop at Dave’s Meats & Produce just as they were closing up today and was impressed with what I saw. Fresh produce, wonderful looking meat and lovely flowers. I’ll be back!
1312 North I Street
Tacoma, WA 98403
(253) 280-9999
The Old Madison School at 3101 South 43rd St., Tacoma, WA has apparently been at 3102 South 43rd at some time in the past. According to Tacoma Public Library “The six-room school, designed by architects Hill & Mock, was completed in October of 1924 at a cost of approximately $35,000. It had replaced two portable buildings on the same site. The school doubled in size in 1957 and improvements made in 1967 and 1979. Madison is no longer an elementary school but currently houses Headstart and Early Childhood Education programs.” That information, as well as a historical photo of the building can be found here http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images/dt6n.asp?un=1&pg=1&krequest=Madison+Elementary+School&stemming=On&phonic=&fuzzy=&maxfiles=5000
Currently the administrative offices for Headstart are located in the Madison Building. Headstart is a preschool program designed to promote school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social and other services to enrolled children and families.
Currently there is a proposal to move the Headstart offices to the building currently housing Bryant Montessori and to vacant the Madison Building.
Bryant Montessori, located at 717 S. Grant Ave., Tacoma, WA 98405 is one of the Tacoma Schools that might be flux. In 1998, this school received a grant to become a public school using the Montessori method. It now provides preschool to 8th grade education.
The original Bryant building was constructed in 1891 and was named after William Cullen Bryant who is remembered for writing Thanatopsis (alright I don’t actually know that poem, but here it is)
https://www.msu.edu/~cloudsar/thanatop.htm
The original building was lovely and held elementary through high school classes and also housed the school board offices and administration. High school students in the late 1800s paid tuition fees and in 1897 it was reduced from $2.50 to $1.50 per month. In any case after 70 years, the building was demolished and the “new” Bryant opened in 1962. A photograph of the original building can be found here. http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/buildings/bldg1image.asp?j=2&o=2&n=15872&i=3774#text
The district proposal currently on the table is to close nearby Franklin Elementary School and use that building to house the Bryant program. Originally the intent had been to house the entire Bryant program at Franklin, but now it is looking more likely that the elementary portion of the Bryant program will move to Franklin and the middle school program would join Geiger Montessori which will move to the vacated Hunt Middle School. This would allow at least some of the Franklin students to at least have the option of staying in the Franklin Building if they wanted a Montessori style of education. Per the newspaper article below “A variety of programs, including Head Start and others, would move from the old Madison School site to the Bryant Elementary site”. Everybody clear?
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/03/10/1579446/tacoma-district-leans-toward-closing.html
Update 7/11 Bryant Montessori is staying put.
Today I found myself back at the University of Washington Tacoma Branch and decided to celebrate finding an easy parking space with a treat. I had the chocolate dipped caramel and dear daughter went for the Monster Cookie (an Oreo dipped in caramel and then fudge). They owner was delightful and the candy selection was great. They also had ice cream and drinks. As befitting a store with the word popcorn in its name, they have an extensive variety of popcorn flavors including Bacon & Cheese, Cheddar, Caramel, Blue Raspberry, Butter Toffee, Butter Rum, Barbecue, Butterscotch, Cherry Vanilla, Chile Lime, Chipotle, English Toffee, Garlic & Parmesan, Green Apple, Honey Mustard, Hot ‘N Spicy, Hot-Cha-Cha, Huckleberry, Jalapeno Heat, Kettle Corn, Molasses, Peanut Butter, Peppermint, Pizza
Ragin Cajun, Ranch, Red Cinnamon, Red, White & Blue, Salt & Vinegar, Seattle Mix, Snickerdoodle, Sour Cream & Chives, South of the Border, Stuffed Potato, Tacoma Mix, Toasted Coconut, Tutti Frutti, White Cheddar, Root Beer Float, Dill Pickle, The Elvis Popcorn, 3 Star Thai, Berries & Cream, Caramel Apple, Chocolate Cocoa, Chocolate Caramel, Cookies & Cream, Cranberry Craving, Habanero Jelly, Peanut Butter Cup, S’Mores, Tiger Butter, Chocolate Coconut, Banana Nut, Caramel Almond, Coconut Cashew and Deluxe Caramel. That information is from there website.
Great Northwest Popcorn is located at 1948 Pacific Ave, Tacoma, WA, 98402-3110
www.greatnorthwestpopcorn.com/
Tumwater Historical Park is the sister park to Tumwater Falls Park, which was my new place of the day on October 17, 2010 (see http://blog.firsttries.com/?p=1407)
This park, which is situated on the Deschutes River, features a wonderful view of the now defunct Olympia Brewing Company. The park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to the lovely setting, there are big toys for the kids and restrooms. Of note is a sign that says the lake is closed because of the New Zealand Mud snails, an invasive species. The City of Tumwater is attempting to quarantine Capital Lake and this lower part of the Deschutes River to stop the spread of the snails.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_mud_snail
http://www.olytumfoundation.org/park.asp
http://www.ci.tumwater.wa.us/historicaldistrictboundaries.htm
A little while back I had photographed each of the schools that Tacoma has on the list to potentially close. They included Franklin, Lyon, Roosevelt, Stanley, McKinley, Wainwright, Geiger and Foss. While not written in stone, the general plan now is to close McKinley, Wainwright and Franklin. Another proposal has been made to move the middle school Montessori program now housed at Bryant and the fledgling K-5 Montessori program at Geiger to the vacant Hunt Middle School Buillding. The timing on the move is unclear, but either 2011 or 2012. Thus, the now vacant Hunt Middle School would be the new site of the K-8 Geiger Montessori Program. There is talk of building a new building for Geiger Montessori, but again the timing is uncertain. The K-5 students currently at the Bryant Building would move to Franklin. The Franklin students would have the option of attending their current school and receiving a Montessori education, or attending an alternate neighborhood school, most likely Stanley or DeLong. Of course, that tentative plan might all change!
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/03/10/1579446/tacoma-district-leans-toward-closing.html
It was in the early spring 2010 that the Tacoma School District decided to close H.F. Hunt Middle School because of federal rules targeting schools that perform poorly on state tests. At the time of closure, Hunt had 346 students and had been following the International Baccalaureate, or IB, model. Their mascot was the Scottie and their colors were green, white and gold. The IB program was switched to Giaudrone in the Fall of 2010.
The school building was constructed in 1958 and was named after Henry F. Hunt, a Tacoma educator for 34 years. At its height, the student population was well over 1,000 students.
After a long work week I was glad to meet my friend for a quick happy hour glass of wine at the Top of Tacoma. We shared the delicious chicken nachos and really there was enough there for a couple more people! The food there is not the fried food I typically associate with bars, but instead is pretty darned tasty.
During nicer weather, there is outside patio seating. I love their ornate metal fence which features tops!
♥
Today I needed to stop at FedEx to mail a package and I wandered two doors down to the Dollar Tree. There is so much stuff there and only a dollar! I ended up with a package of 2 toothbrushes, gum, reading glasses, a small milk (which is what I went in for!), frozen broccoli, frozen mixed berries and gummy bears for dear daughter.
http://www.dollartree.com/home.jsp
On the way there I took this photo of a school bus.
