Category Archives: Places of the Spirit

More – Year 8 – Tacoma Bible Presbyterian Church

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So here we are on the eve of year 8 of the blog (yes, year 8!) and it seems like it is time for a shift. Over the Summer I started the Adventures of Lego Librarian (Reading in Place) and that has been fun and oddly well received. The best place to see all of that series of photos is Instagram. So this blog will be seeing more of Lego Librarian. But not to fear, I’ll still be out and about!

Looking back at this blog so far, I have some new observations. My most popular posts in order of popularity since inception have been:

The home page is also popular.

There are 1,358 blog entries.

The most popular tag by far is Tacoma, followed by Art, WA, restaurant, park, coffee, Lakewood, historic, mural, vacant, store, food, downtown, University Place, Seattle, grocery, avenue, flowers.

And now today’s place is the Tacoma Bible Presbyterian Church at their previous location of S G St, Tacoma, WA 98405. It is in the Stadium District, across the street from Wright’s Park and Stadium Thriftway. This building is slatted for demolition with a mixed use development in the works. From what I could gather, there was a fire in the building and afterwards the City of Tacoma did not permit it to be renovated. The congregation of the church has a new location in University Place and their website is here if you want to know more. The nice folks from the church were having a sale which included several pianos, church pews, kitchen items, books, etc. One of the workers was telling me that the building had a seminary on the upper floor and that young men would watch the 4th of July fireworks from the window in their area.

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May Peace Prevail on Earth, Puyallup United Methodist Church

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This Easter I was driving past the Puyallup Methodist Church at 1919 West Pioneer Avenue, Puyallup WA 98371 when In noticed their delightfully flowered cross. It had a combination of live flowers and artificial flowers and was really decked out. While there I was drawn to the three peace poles with the words “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in many languages.  I also appreciated the Blessings Box, which was similar to a little free library, but larger and full of food. What a nice idea.

The church’s website is here.

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Great Udon at the Tacoma Hongwanji Buddhist Church

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Great Udon at the Tacoma Hongwanji Buddhist Church

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My udon and mochi at Tacoma’s Buddhist Church during their Fall Bazaar were delicious and my husband said his miso soup really hit the spot. Our meal was served by the nicest volunteer waitstaff and our tea was topped off on a regular basis. Really the fall festival was a positive experience.

The Buddhist property at 1717 Fawcett Avenue, in Tacoma, is sometimes referred to as a temple and sometimes as a church. The building, which features a lovely red tile roof and stone lanterns flanking the main door, was originally constructed in 1930 for its current use.  It is listed on the city, state and national historic registers. One interesting note to the building’s history is that it was closed in May 1942 for the duration of World War II. Many of the members of the congregation were sent to Camp Harmony (now the site of the Puyallup Fair) and the leader of the church taught Sunday School at the camp. The camp was a detention center for Japanese Americans during the war.

Luckily that time is behind us.

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Cambodian Temple, Tacoma, WA

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The Khmer Theravadin Buddhist Temple is located at 1420 East 44th Street in Tacoma. I was welcomed to look around a take some photos. In fact the monk that was there actually offered to take my photo 🙂 and told me that I’d have good luck because I had placed a donation in the donation box.

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Stonehenge

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IMG_2549Stonehenge had also been on my bucket list and I was so pleased to hear this world heritage site was part of this year’s tour. It was a little more of a production than I expected with the parking area being some distance from the site. But the folks that run it do provide transportation.

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument that originated between 2000 and 3000 BC and because of the age of the monument, there is a great deal of mystery. I did learn that:

  • It is a burial site
  • The Druids would hold ceremonies here
  • For the most part, the public is no longer aloud to walk up to the stones
  • That over the years the stones have been straightened when in danger of falling over
  • The visitor’s center opened in December 2013 and I could have happily spent more time there
  • According to some myths, the stone were healing rocks

Here is a short BBC video on this history of Stonehenge and here is the official visitors webpage.

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Notre-Dame Cathedral

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IMG_0120Notre-Dame Cathedral is so grandly huge, that I found it impossible to photograph without better equipment and more time. But the church was majestic and wonderful and I was honored to be able to visit it. Besides the obvious connection to the famous book and the Disney movie, I thought the most interesting tidbit was the true Wolves of Paris story about a pack of man-eating wolves that killed 40 people in Paris in 1450. The people of Paris lured the wolves to the front of Notre-Dame and killed them there.

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The Grotto, Portland, OR

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IMG_1055The Grotto, also known as  is National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother, is a 62-acre Catholic shrine and botanical garden which is administered by the Order of Friars Servants of Mary.

The Grotto is lovely and peaceful. By far the most unique part is the elevator, which is built adjacent to the 110′ cliff and has only two stops. I got on at the bottom, the location of Our Lady’s Grotto, a gift store, and the largest of the churches. and got off at the top, the site of the gardens, other smaller churches and religious artwork.  The grotto is a rock cave carved into the cliff and feature a life-size marble replica of Michelangelo’s Pieta.

The complex is free to visit, but there is a $5 charge to take the elevator. It’s well worth it. To learn more, look here.

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Chief Sealth’s (Seattle) Grave

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13551673333_79569e9b49_b Chief Seattle’s grave site is located at 7076 NE South Street, Suquamish, in the Suquamish Tribal Cemetary just behind St. Peter’s Catholic Mission and north of Bainbridge Island. While we were there, several small groups came to pay their respects and some have left tokens, mostly shells, but also some art and coins. To either side of the headstone are tall, painted carvings. He was buried here in 1866 and the headstone was put into place in 1890. It is obviously from other photos on the internet, that the grave site has recently been improved.

Chief Sealth was born in 1786 and was a Chief of the Suquamish Tribe. The  city of Seattle was named after him.

Saint Peter’s Catholic Church was built in 1902, replacing an older church. The windows of the current church were taken out of the original church.

More about the site can be found here.

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Boehm’s Candy

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BoehmsI was driving around Issaquah looking for something interesting and was pleasantly surprised at my choices — a root beer drive in, a restored vintage gas station, cute stores, etc. The day’s winner was Boehms Candy at 255 NE Gilman Blvd. Issaquah, WA 98027. The company began in Seattle’s Ravenna neighborhood in 1943 and in 1956 they moved to their current location. The store is located in the “Edelweiss Chalet”, the first Alpine chalet in the Northwest. In addition to the store and the candy manufacturing facility, there is a replica of a 12th century chapel near St. Moritz, a fountain, a statue of William Tell, a park area with a decorative fountain and an enthusiastic water fountain (water is life).

To order learn more about Boehms or to order candy, click here

It occurs to me that I know nothing about William Tell except he has a theme song. I learned he was a folk hero of Switzerland. Looking over Wikipedia, I remembered that he is know for shooting an apple off his son’s head.  The statue shows Tell and his son, Altdorf and is (I assume) a replica of the original statue by Richard Kissling in 1895.

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