Katie Downs at 3211 Ruston Way has the best pizza in the Puget Sound. The Weekly Volcano’s 2011 Tournament of Pizza Champion had 64 competitors and Katie Downs came out on top
Now I hadn’t actually gone to Katie Downs for pizza, but while I was there my dear daughter called wanting me to stop for thai food. I talked her into wanting pizza instead and brought home a double cheese, pesto and fresh tomato pie. It was delicious!
I stopped at Fred Meyers at 4504 South 19th Street, Tacoma for some carpet cleaning fluid that they sell. I was naively surprised to find an entire row of Christmas merchandise! Well, OK then.
Big M Stained Glass at 711 south 25th Street Tacoma, WA 98405 has one of the best signs in Tacoma! The building is home to pretty much anything one would need to make stained glass and they also do lovely custom work.
The site has an interesting history. In 1886 the South School was constructed. And in 1889, the three story primary school was renamed the Longfellow School. The school closed after 50 years in 1936 because the building had deteriorated. The school’s first 4th grade teacher was Fay E. Fuller who in 1890 because the first woman to climb Mt. Rainier. More information about the Longfellow School can be found here http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/buildings/bldg1up.asp?n=3810
The school was demolished in 1936 and the Tacoma Boy’s Club was constructed on the site in 1942. The club even had a year round swimming pool, which was added in 1951. In 1979 the Boys Club moved their operations to Stanley Playfield, where it is today. In 1983 the property was purchase and remodeled.
I had a little time to stop for dinner and didn’t want fast food, but didn’t have the time or funds for extra nice. And I’d been meaning to stop at Happy Dragon Chinese at 5104 Sixth Avenue, Tacoma. It was an early dinner for me and I was their only customer, though a couple of folks came in for take out. I ordered the curry chicken and it was good and plenty for two meals. The meal was served with white rice at no additional cost, which isn’t always the case now a days.
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.
We hadn’t lived in Tacoma all too long before we discovered Mrs. Frisby’s Bakery at 710 South 38th Street in the Lincoln District. We would go there every so often. I was fond of their moist, delicious brand muffins and my husband like their bear claws. When our daughter was little we would take her to watch the ladies decorating cakes. The bakery had been around since 1930 and closed in 2000. The space was vacant for a long time, but is now occupied by Thinh Xuan Ho, M.D.
The Tacoma Public Library has a photo of the bakery from 1956 here:
Saturday evening I joined the World Wide Photo Walk by joining a group walking around the History Museum in Tacoma. We walked from the museum, across the Bridge of Glass and down to the waterfront. Afterward the group of us went out to eat at Abellas at 1946 Pacific Avenue. Abella’s menu can be found here: http://www.allmenus.com/wa/tacoma/45349-abella-pizzeria/info/
The website for the world wide photo walk can be found here http://worldwidephotowalk.com/
And one last photo taken on 5/2/14
I had it in my head to look for a place that is allegedly haunted for my new place. So I googled Tacoma and Haunted and found the former site of the Children’s Industrial Home (an orphanage). The orphanage which had been on the site was constructed 1904 at a cost of $7,500. The building looked like a mansion and held up to thirty children. It was called the “Home on the Hill”.
In September of 1944 the furnace and the boiler in the building’s basement exploded and thankfully none of the children were seriously hurt, though two of the adults were injured. A TPL photo of the damage can be found here.
And another photo of the original building and some of the darling children can be found here.
The insurance company declared the building a complete loss and it was torn down. A new facility was constructed on the site later. The youthful occupants of the current site complain about hearing crying at one end of the “new” building and adult staff members have reported seeing ghosts of children playing around the building.
More history of the facility can be found here.
Respecting the privacy of the current facility, I snapped a photo of a lone tree towards the top of the hill away from the buildings.
The Mandolin Cafe at 3923 South 12th Street near the intersection of South 12th & Proctor provides an occasional respite for us. It doesn’t have an extensive menu, but what it has is delicious. They do have a large selection of teas, quality coffee and wines. What keeps me keeping coming back to the Mandolin is the atmosphere, comfortable, warm, art filled and often eclectic live music.
http://www.themandolincafe.com/
Sadly the Mandolin Cafe closed in July 2012. It wasn’t because of their business, but instead a problem with the lease. I’m hopeful they will reopen in a new location at some point.
I was driving home looking for something just a little bit interesting to use as my new place of the day when the afternoon light hit Bucky’s and really made the yellow color light up. This Bucky’s is located at 6318 6th Avenue, Tacoma, WA.
