Category Archives: WA State – Pierce County

Trung Nguyen Billiard Hall (vacant)

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Tacoma is not all waterfront parks and restored historic buildings. The nationwide economic crisis has hit here too and there are building that have been abandon and left to deteriorate. One of these buildings is the Trung Nguyen Billiard Hall (Pool Hall) at 722 S 38th St. Tacoma WA 98418. I remember when it was open and it never seemed very inviting, at least to me. The property originally was constructed in 1970 as a Pacific National Bank of Washington and the drive through teller is still in place. The windows were awfully dirty, but a quick glance showed the interior to be in shambles. There must be 40 full trash bags on the site. There is no for lease or for sale sign visible. The Pierce Co. Assessor’s Office still shows the property to be under private ownership.

Update 4/14: I hear rummer that the building is slated for demolition.

 

Kitakyushu, Japan Monument

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I didn’t set out to make the Kitakyushu, Japan Monument at 3691 Rustin Way my new place of the day, but I found myself driving along Rustin Way enjoying the lovely weather and it just seemed like the thing to do! Kitakyushu was established as one of Tacoma’s sister cities in 1984 and this shiny sculpture was presented in 1989. The art piece shows a map with both Tacoma and Kitakyushu with an anchor in the middle.  

Looking over information from the Port (see the link below) I found the imports/exports interesting.  Our biggest export to Kitakyushu is cereals with a value of $203.1 million.  The other top four exports are inorganic chemical and rare earth metals ($198.2 million), prepared vegetables, fruit, nuts ($167 million), oil seeds, miscellaneous grain, seed, fruit ($160.6 million) and meat and edible meat offal ($141.2 million).

Their largest import to us is vehicles and parts  with a value of $2.4 billion and the next four are industrial machinery ($1.7 billion), electric machinery and electronics ($823.3 million), optic, photo, medical and surgical instruments ($276.9 million) and articles of iron or steel ($200.9 million).  Seems a little lopsided to me!

http://www.portoftacoma.com/page.aspx?cid=521

And more info can be found here:  http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=771

  

 

  

Summer Reading = Free food

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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

 

Clay Art Center For all of your Pottery and Ceramics needs

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I don’t really have any pottery or ceramic needs, but if I was so inclined to be creative with pottery or ceramics, Clay Art Center at 2636 Pioneer Way East – Tacoma, WA 98404 is where I would go! We are in search of bathroom tiles (still) and thought we’d check out this place. It is a large facility and they really do seem to have it all. Just not artistic pre-made ceramic tiles. Their website can be found here:  http://www.clayartcenter.net/

Habitat for Humanity Store

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Funny story… I’m in the car with my husband and he says let’s go to the Habitat Restore in the Port. Oh boy! I’ve been wanting to see the new estuary nature place that I read about! I was pretty excited that dear husband would suggest it. That’s the spirit of adventure!

And then we pulled up here at the Habitat for Humanity Store at 505 Puyallup Ave., Tacoma, WA 98421. Oh, I see. We need bathroom tiles. No, really its OK. I just had my heart set on seeing ducks!

In actuality the Habitat for Humanity Store is very cool and I’ve been meaning to go there. Folks donate building materials (doors, lighting fixtures, tile, cabinets, mirrors, etc.) and other folks buy them. Habitat makes a little money for their most excellent work. We walked out with some tiles, groat, and a ceramic soap dish to go in the shower. No ducks.

I guess I can do the Habitat for Humanity store again in the future because they are moving to South Tacoma Way and the building is available for lease.

More information about the local Habitat for Humanity is here: http://www.tpc-habitat.org/

The building is on the site of Joe Zehnder’s First & Last Chance Saloon, sadly now demolished. The current building was constructed in 1926 as the Stevens & Vetter, Inc. Garage / Fageol Motor Sales Co. and had been used as warehousing for the adjacent railroad. Although the building has been renovated over the years I can still see the original structure in the roof line. Look here to see the building as it was in 1928: http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/buildings/bldg1image.asp?j=1&o=5&n=24097&i=9072#text

Madronna Oakland Community Garden

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The community garden at the corner of Center Avenue and Tyler Street has the most unusual art of any of the local community gardens. The entry arch is appropriately titled “Working”and features a hammer, chisel and gears. A near by bench has pliers and a saw. The art is by Otto Youngers. The garden itself, known as Tyler Square Park, is only half occupied, but that half is full of healthy looking vegetables.

Tacoma Weekly recently wrote an article on the space, It can be found here:
http://www.tacomaweekly.com/citylife/art/know_your_public_art_oakland_madronas_working_gateway/

The artist’s website is here: http://www.ottoyoungers.com/

  

 

Red Oak in Wright Park

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Usually I use the FourSquare app on my phone to record that I have been to a place, but once in a while I use an alternative app called Gowalla. I was amused to see that somebody had gone through Wright Park and made many of the individual trees separate destinations! I’m sure I won’t get around to all of them, but today’s new place is one of the Red Oak Trees in Wright Park. How do I know its a Red Oak? The parks folks thoughtfully labelled it!

If you’d like to know more about Red Oaks, check out this site:

http://ostermiller.org/tree/redoak.html

The World’s Tallest Totem Pole

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Firemen’s Park at South 8th and ‘A’ Street in Downtown Tacoma is reputed to have the world’s largest totem pole.  At 105′ long (82′ above ground) the 1903, red cedar totem pole certainly is tall. The park also features a bronze statue, Leading the Way, by Larry Anderson.  Mr. Anderson has several sculptures around town including the one in front of Union Station. Today somebody placed a shawl on the logger, perhaps to help with the cool nights!  The park is rounded out by views of Commencement Bay, the Port of Tacoma, the Murry Morgan Bridge, Mt. Rainier and the Tacoma Dome.

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A handy bench in Fern Hill

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The pocket park at the northwest corner of South 84th Street and Yakima Avenue in the Fern Hill District is charming. It has a couple of benches, a clock, a street light, thoughtful landscaping and some art. The hand bench is just plain fun and there is also a relief of the original Fern Hill School as seen in 1888. Most interesting is a historic marker that says S. 84th Street is an old covered wagon trail and was legally established as a road in 1852 to create an escape route in case of an Indian uprising.

  

Dead End, No Turn Around

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Dead End, No Turn Around by Gexydaf

The Prairie House Museum at 812 E. 176th Street in Spanaway was today’s new place, so it saddened me that it wasn’t open. Their webpage said they are open on Wednesdays from 10 to 2 and every third Sunday of the month from 2 – 4. But the gate was locked, so I called them on the phone and a recording said they were usually open on Wednesdays from 10-2, but one should always call first. Good to know. I snapped a few photos through their really tall fence. The museum is a restored farmhouse from the 1890s, as well as some farm outbuildings and a log cabin.

celebratespanaway.com/PrairieHouse.htm

While turning around, we discovered this delightful sign!