The 717 Building is located at 717 Tacoma Avenue and was constructed in 1918 and was renovated in 2005. It is leased as office space. It was originally constucted as a mortuary and in 2005 when it was occupied as the Tacoma-Pierce County Family Justice Center it was placed on the Tacoma Registry of Historic Places. The Crystal Judson Family Justice Center is located in the building and was named in honor of Crystal Judson who was killed by her husband, Police Chief David Brame on April 26 2003.
Fireboat #1 is one of five fireboats in the country to be a historic landmark. The boat, which is now dry docked along Ruston Way was constructed in 1929 and had served for 54 years.
Information from the Tacoma Park’s Department can be found here: http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=66
The detailed historic nomination form can be found here: http://www.nps.gov/maritime/nhl/fireboat.htm
The Pacific Grill, located at 1502 Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma, has a splendid happy hour which extends fro 11:30 – 10 Monday through Thursday, 11:30 – 11 on Friday and 5 – 11 on Saturday. Besides the normal drink specials, most of the food on the bar menu is half price and delightful food it is! An appetizer handily makes a meal.
http://www.pacificgrilltacoma.com/
The restaurant occupies the lower level of the 1890 Waddell Building which was substantially renovated and incorporated into new Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in 2004. The building is listed on the historic register. A photo of the building as it appeared in 1979, prior to renovation, can be found here:
Today was too lovely to stay inside or even in town, so I grabbed dear daughter and we went to Mt. Rainier to take a stroll on Trail of Shadows in the Longmire area of Mt. Rainier. It is a short trail (.7 miles), but really lovely with views of open areas, Mt. Rainier, wooded areas and a pioneer cabin. James Longmire settled in the area in the late 1800s and when he saw the mineral springs he built a spa to capitalize on them. The one photo below with the reddish mud is the remains of one of the Longmire Medical Springs. There is a sign near the springs that says “Please don’t drink this water. It can make you very sick!” Never crossed my mind that somebody would actually drink it!
The Heidelberg Brewery has been at 2120 South C Street in Tacoma under various names since 1900. There is a most excellent history of the brewery located here http://www.brewerygems.com/columbia.htm and a reader would learn much from reading it. I was interested to learn that the brewery was actually constructed over an artesian well. Also of interest was that during prohibition, the brewery made soft drinks and a non-alcoholic near-beer called “Colo”. The brewery closed its doors in 1979 and was vacant for many years and was slated for demolition when it caught on fire on July 7, 2011. As you can see from the photos, at least part of the site is currently being cleared.
The joys of out of town company include visiting places usually reserved for tourist. On Monday we went on Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour in Downtown Seattle. The 90 minute tour began in Doc Maynard’s Public House (608 First Ave, in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, between Cherry Street and Yesler Way.) After opening remarks, the rather large group follows the excellent tour guide underground to explore the long deserted original sidewalks of the city. For those that don’t know, Seattle’s downtown burnt down in 1889. When it was rebuilt, the city founders determined that it should be elevated to help with the sewerage problem (the toilets were geysering during high tide) . Some of the property owners could not wait for the slow process of the government’s installation of fill, then roads and sidewalks. The property owners went ahead and built their stone and brick building and when the infrastructure was later installed, the main floor of the buildings became the basements. They were later condemned. The tour took us through a three block area and was very interesting and engaging.
I signed up for the adult summer reading program at the library and have completed my first five books, so I qualified for a prize! Yippee! It is a darling, red snack sack and inside was a reading notebook, a coupon for 3 free games of bowling with shoe rental and a free appetizer from the Harmon Brewing Company at 1938 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma! Wow, that’s cool! So off we went. Dear daughter and I split the crab cake appetizer, which was delicious and also shared the very rich mac n cheese. We brought some of that home with us in a doggie bag. The service was grand and the food wonderful. What more could we want? The website for the Harmon is here: http://harmonbrewingco.com/brewery_eatery.html
There are over 500 vintage vehicles at the LeMay Family Collection at 325 152nd Street East, Tacoma, WA 98445. Our family signed up for the 1:00 tour and I figured it would be over by 2:00 so the next group could begin. But they must stagger tours because ours went until 3:30! The tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students and kids under 5 are free. A tour guide takes the groups through, which is great because he was happy to talk about the cars, tell stories about how they came to be at LeMay and answer questions!.
Their literature says that they have the largest privately owned vehicle and memorabilia collection in the world. I believe it! Instead of writing more, I’m just going to post a bunch of photos 🙂
The LeMay website can be found here: http://www.lemaymuseum.org/
On Sunday (I’m running a tad behind in my write ups!) we went to visit the Historic Thorp Mill in Thorp, WA, about 14 miles west of Ellensburg. I’ve always loved this historic mill but it is usually closed when I visit. This time, not only was it open, but there was a guide to take us through and explain everything. I wish I had gotten her name, because she was great! We learned that the mill was constructed in 1885. The farmers would bring their grain into the mill and the grain would go to the upper levels to be ground into various degrees of coarseness. Little scoops on a vertical conveyer belt took the grains up and gravity brought them back down. We also learned that the little town of Thorp was one of the first small towns to have electrical power because of the mill. Most importantly I was pleased that the two teens found it all so interesting!
Guided tours are available June through August. If you visit during the cooler months, there is a self guided tour around the building. There is no cost, but donations are gladly accepted.
