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Movie, Church, Movie, Church

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8373909701_0987604b74_bThe Rex Theater at 3809 Yakima Ave., in Tacoma’s Lincoln District, was built in 1919 and stayed in business until 1958. It has 650 seats which included a nursery so mothers with young children could see the films. The property owner was Martin Steffen. In 1958 it was converted to the Tacoma Calvary Temple, a church. And in 1980 it again became a theater, but this time it was porn. I believe the property stood vacant for a while and now it is occupied by the New Restoration Christian Ministries.

REXA movie database site with this picture can be found here http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/9489 The movie on the marquee is Four Hours to Kill (1935, A murderer eludes his guard and escapes into a theater where the lives of those in attendance are affected by the danger of his presence.)

Update, January 2017: I stopped by again today to capture the theater. It is looking pretty sad. I have hopes that it will be fixed up during the district’s revitalization this year.


The News Tribune

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ntThe News Tribune is Tacoma’s daily newspaper. It had its origins in 1918 when the city’s three existing newspapers merged under its current name. The paper, which serves the south Puget Sound, has a present day circulation of 85,000, which increases to 100,000 on Sunday (including our household!). The New Tribune address is 1950 State Street, Tacoma.

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Pretty Blue Glow on the Sounder Overpass

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8369573766_80947d9e5a_b(1)I’ve often admired the nice blue LED light glow on the Sounder Overpass and tonight on the way back from a meeting I stopped at a red light and snapped a photo. The ribbon cutting for the Tacoma Dome Station to the Lakewood Station was on October 8th, 2012.

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The Dental Office on Union and 31st St.

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Dental OfficeI’ve always liked then dental office at 3104 South Union. The building has a mission style design and was constructed in 1929.

A flying saucer at Tacoma’s School of the Arts Building

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18181818 Tacoma Avenue had been one of Tacoma School of the Art locations for years, but they have left it in favor of the downtown post office building. The best thing about the building is the planters with student art work. I thought my photo was a tad dull so I added a frame and a flying saucer! A not edited (i.e. boring) photo is below, as is a close up of one of the planters.

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Love Where You Shop, Whole Foods Market

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Love Where You Shop
Whole Foods Market at 2800 SW 196th St. SW, Lynnwood  Washington  98036 is one of the seven Whole Foods Grocery Stores in Washington State. The first location opened in 1999 at Roosevelt Square in Seattle (that’s what it says on the wall!).
There is something soothing about shopping here with all of their healthy food choices and unusual products. I walked away with an organic grapefruit juice, some spiced pecans, lunch for tomorrow (smoked sweet potatoes) and some nice smelling soaps. I was impressed that kids where allowed to pick one piece of fruit from the wagon to munch on while their adults shopped. Nice touch.

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/whole-foods-market

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Metro Park’s Star Center

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Metro Parks Tacoma’s Star Center at 3873 S. 66th St., Tacoma, WA  98409 is very nice. Their website says “The 32,000 square foot STAR Center offers a stunning new hall for rentals, a new music and dance studio, a demonstration kitchen, fitness room, as well as a dynamic indoor/outdoor children’s playground with an adjacent party rental space.” What surprised me the most was the Subway Restaurant in the building.  http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/star/

I was there for the kick off of the Prop 1 Campaign. The school bond, which will go on the ballot on February 12th, would provide much needed funding to renovate or replace 14 schools and would also make safety repairs and many other Tacoma schools. The 14 schools are Washington*, SAMI, McCarver*, Wilson, Stewart*, Wainwright, Arlington, Browns Pt., Lyon, Birney, Grant, Boze, Downing and Hunt. The schools with * will maintain their historic character. http://www.tacoma.k12.wa.us/information/Documents/Proposition%201%20brochure.pdf

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Mural on South 14th & South ‘G’

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8348273446_30b03401aa_z(2)Coming home I made a quick stop to snap this photo of the mural at the corner of South 14th Street and South G. Street. I was going to take the mural along South G Street in the same area, but there was a car that made me nervous so I decided to wait until another day. Safety first. The mural says St. Ignatius Immersion 2012.

LeRoy Jewelers and Happy New Year

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Happy New Year. Dear daughter, her friend and I went downtown to First Night to ring in 2013. The theme is the Year of the Snake and the unofficial mascot seems to be Quetzalcoatl, which is cool since I had just checked out Tacoma’s Quetzalcoatl art in November. http://blog.firsttries.com/quetzalcoatl-mask/

LeRoy Jewelers had a wonderful Quetzalcoatl Mask in their store window. at 940 Broadway and they were welcoming people in from the cold for First Night. Besides wonderful jewelry, they offer arts and crafts in their Art Shop. It is always a pleasure to see their wares.

http://ljewelers.com/

The site for the building had originally been occupied the Far West Lodging House, which was demolished. By 1928 the Metropolitan Chain Stores, Inc. was in place and then in 1961 it was the Lundquist Lilly Men’s Wear, which closed in 1968. LeRoy Jewelers moved into the building in 1970 and the clock on the sidewalk was installed in 1988. LeRoy means king in french.

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Tullys in the Stadium DIstrict, Baby It’s Cold Outside

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While out running errands I stopped at Tully’s in the Stadium District (24 Tacoma Avenue North). This is one of three Tully’s in Tacoma and one of 200+ locations in the US. The first Tully’s opened in Seattle in 1992.

I usually order an Americano, but today I drank a peppermint mocha because it just looked so darned good advertised up there on the board.

Unbeknownst to me, Tully’s has been in the news the past few days. Apparently the chain is up for sale and Starbucks is one of the potential buyers. There are 47 company owned stores and I don’t know if this is one of them. Another potential buyer is a Grey’s Anatomy actor Patrick Dempsey’s investment group.

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