This Quetzalcoatl Mask in Tacoma’s Theater District (on Broadway between South 11th and South 13th) is a bronze, stainless steel and granite sculpture that represents an Aztec God (‘the feathered serpent or the rain god Tlaloc). There is another sculpture on the other side of the post. The artist is Doug Granum (http://www.douglasgranum.com/). He was also the sculptor for the Locomotive Monument, also downtown.
This cool, rainy Saturday dear daughter and I went off to the DuPont Holiday Bazaar, which was held at Pioneer Middle School http://www.steilacoom.k12.wa.us/Domain/9. My Facebook photographer friend, Kate Lynch, was there and I was so happy to meet her face to face. 🙂 The holiday bazaar had quality, interesting items for sale and the vendors seemed unusually, sincerely nice.
I hadn’t realized that schools in DuPont (ok, the only public school in DuPont) is part of the Steilacoom School District. It is a nice looking school and recently built.
St. Leo’s at 1323 Yakima Ave., Tacoma, is having their annual Fair Trade Market this weekend (Friday 4-7pm, Saturday Nov 17, 1-7pm and Sunday Nov 18, 9am-2pm). There were plenty of vendors, both Fair Trade and local folks. The building was constructed in 1912 and the architect was C. Frank Mahon. I remember when we first moved to Tacoma, I would attend Tacoma Actor’s Guild plays in the theater here. I admire the social justice program and food bank at St. Leo’s
Today dear husband and I toured The historical post office at 1102 A Street, Tacoma. The tour was sponsored by Historic Tacoma http://www.historictacoma.org/ The property is a glorious three story plus basement building that was constructed as a federal building in 1910.The architect was James Knox Taylor. In 1992, the 2nd and 3rd floor courthouse space was vacated in 1992 when the courts moved to their current Union Station location. The tour included a jail cell, courtrooms, the Tacoma School of the Arts (SOTA) space, several large wall safes and a vacant postal area. We got to hear the vision for the property including commercial;retail space, perhaps a restaurant. The 72,000-square-foot building is listed on the city, state and national registers of historic places.
Albertson’s at 2401 North Pearl Street in Tacoma is one of two Albertson’s within Tacoma’s city limits and one of 463 Albertsons in the US (California, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming). The chain was founded in 1939 in Boise, Idaho.
Their website http://www.albertsons.com/ has some good seasonal recipes.
Hula Girls Coffee Company at 1901 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma, is a wonderful alternative to Starbucks. It’s been in place at the 76th Station for about a year and in April 2012 was painted a bright, cheery yellow that really makes it stand out! The owner was friendly, the coffee (Kealas Hawaiian) was really good, their prices were righteous and they had pastries from Corina’s Bakery and that is always a sign of quality. I’m sure I’ll be back.
The link for the coffee and the stand can be found here
http://www.kealashawaiiancoffee.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hula-Girls-Coffee-Co/272640566099129
Tacoma has two little free libraries which are part of the Little Free Library Project. http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/.
This “Little Free Library” is located at 4617 North 10th Street, Tacoma, WA. It is a darling blue box with a white door and a wine cork handle. Inside there are about a dozen books and of the few that I had previously read they are good quality reads. It is part of a community movement which offers free books. Per the Wikipedia article, there are currently over 200 of these libraries. There are building plans to create the containers or participate may design their own. Each of the libraries is registered and can be located by their GPS coordinates. Per the website:
On Veteran’s Day it seemed appropriate to stop at the The Veteran’s of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Ladies Auxiliary, Eric G. Sandstrom, Post 969 (3510 McKinley Avenue East Tacoma, Washington 98404). There is a splendid mural on the building featuring a multicultural selection of men and women that have served in the US military.
Another hidden art treasure in Tacoma is the mural at Bergerson Terrace Apartments at 5305 South Orchard. The mural was installed in 2011 and the lead artists were Rachael Dotson, Joni Joachims and Jeremy Gregory.
606 Tacoma Avenue South is home to commercial space with a delightful gate that features the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
