Watson’s Nursery at 6211 Pioneer Way E., Puyallup, WA 98371 is a soothing place and its it is easy to while away a couple of hours. I joined my friends for lunch at their Flower Pot restaurant and then two of us took advantage of their special ($9 for 4 fuchsia starts planted in our own pot)
Cappy’s Produce at 1232 72nd St E., Tacoma, WA 98404 has been around for three years, but I hadn’t shopped there until this week. In my pursuit of new places and a desire for more fruits and veggies in my family’s diet, Cappy’s became my goal. It was a great find! Plenty of produce at great prices. It had all of the staples, plus some unusual items. Everything I tried was above average. The cashier was helpful and seemed sincerely glad that I was there. And that’s a good thing since I plan to be back 🙂
Dear husband loves estate sales and he was so impressed with the house for this sale that he made me come with him today. The 1908 house at 710 North I Street was recently listed for auction by the owner and the Tacoma News Tribune ran an article on it. http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/01/06/1971410/a-bit-of-tacoma-history-goes-on.html#storylink=misearch
Ambrose Russell was the architect for the home. He also was involved with designing the governor’s mansion in Olympia and Stadium High School in Tacoma. The house is large at 4,700 square feet and really lovely with plenty of wood details. The wallpaper is a delight!
Dear Daughter’s Robotics Team was in a competition this Saturday, so we drove up to Centurylink Event Center in Seattle. The space contains 200,000 square feet and was hosting two simultaneous meets with about 50 teams each. The teams were made up of high school students, mostly from Washington State though there were teams from Mexico and Turkey. Each team is given six weeks to create a robot to perform in a match. This year the criteria was that each robot had to be able to shot baskets and balance on a teeter totter style bridge. The teams are given some basic supplies, but they have to add to those supplies and create the robots by themselves with the help of adult mentors.
I’m pleased to say that out of all those teams, my daughter’s team, the SOTA Bots won! It was pretty exciting 🙂
Info on the event center can be found here http://www.centurylinkfield.com/event-center-booking/
Info on the First Competition can be found here http://www.firstwa.org/
1715 Tacoma Avenue South is the site of Tacoma’s Japanese Schoolhouse, which was demolished in 2004. To be fair, I think this is a photo of the site, though it might be the site next door.
I’ve heard it called the Japanese Schoolhouse, but it is also known as the Japanese Language School, Nihon Go Gakko and Tacoma Yochiyen. It was constructed in 1922 and placed on the national historic register in 1984 and the Tacoma historic register in 1985. The building was used for cultural activities and education of Tacoma’s Japanese population until 1942 when it was closed. It was then used as a registration and processing center for local Japanese citizens when they were relocated to “camps” for the duration of World War II.
The National Archieves has this to say about the Japanese relocation (http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation/)
The attack on Pearl Harbor also launched a rash of fear about national security, especially on the West Coast. In February 1942, just two months after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt as commander-in-chief, issued Executive Order 9066, which had the effect of relocating all persons of Japanese ancestry, both citizens and aliens, inland, outside of the Pacific military zone. The objectives of the order were to prevent espionage and to protect persons of Japanese descent from harm at the hands of Americans who had strong anti-Japanese attitudes.
In Washington and Oregon, the eastern boundary of the military zone was an imaginary line along the rim of the Cascade Mountains; this line continued down the spine of California from north to south. From that line to the Pacific coast, the military restricted zones in those three states were defined.
Roosevelt’s order affected 117,000 people of Japanese descent, two-thirds of whom were native-born citizens of the United States. The Issei were the first generation of Japanese in this country; the Nisei were the second generation, numbering 70,000 American citizens at the time of internment. Within weeks, all persons of Japanese ancestry–whether citizens or enemy aliens, young or old, rich or poor–were ordered to assembly centers near their homes. Soon they were sent to permanent relocation centers outside the restricted military zones.
I was able to go through the schoolhouse before it was demolished and it was a fascinating bit of history. Some of the original desks were still there! When I went through the space was being used by a neon glass artist. Normally buildings on the historic register are saved from demolition, but this wooden structure was too far gone to be saved. The property is now owned by the University of Washington.
Pictures of the building can be found at the Tacoma Public Library http://search.tpl.lib.wa.us/buildings/bldgdetails.asp?id=BU-2563&vhash=T&i=1
The Tacoma Dome Station at 610 Puyallup Avenue, Tacoma is a major hub with the buses, Link and Sounder all right there. The station includes two seven story buildings and contains 2,500 parking spaces. It cost $10,500,000 to build in 1999.
http://www.piercetransit.org/tds2.htm
I’ve always admired this apartment building at 4010 Thompson. There isn’t much public information on it. The Tacoma Public Library shows that it sold in 1938. The Pierce County Assessor’s Office shows that it was built in 1900 (I would have guess later) and has six units. It was foreclosed in 2009, but has since sold.
Several 7-11s have popped up around Tacoma recently and it is good to see any new development. Today I stopped at the 7 Eleven at 2632 South Tacoma Way in the Nally Valley neighborhood of Tacoma.
During this extended winter I’ve had more then my fair share of coffee. Today I went out for a walk, but it started to hail! So, I ducked into the Northern Pacific Coffee Company at 401 Garfield Street South, in the Parkland area of unincorporated Pierce County. The coffee shop features lunch, sweets, wine, beer, coffee drinks and frappes. I had a delicious Americano and a chai cupcake.
Northern Pacific Coffee Company’s facebook page can be found here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Northern-Pacific-Coffee-Company-NPCC/167740459948412
Update: Northern Pacific Coffee Company closed as of January 2017.
Today I went to say goodbye to a friend at Immanuel Presbyterian Church at 901 North J Street in Tacoma. The church, which was constructed in 1909, is beautiful with its mission styling and stained glass windows. It’s long history is explained on the congregation’s website http://www.ipctacoma.org/about.php?id=4
 