I went back to the Red Elm Café to visit with an old friend and now a new friend. While there I noticed this terrific artwork on the wall of the Basket Nook On MLK Way between South 10th and South 11th. I suspect that the art is temporary until somebody develops the lot and considering the good things that are happening I’m guessing new construction will happen sooner than later. But for now I’m enjoying it.
Red Elm Café at 1114 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma WA 98405 opened in the early spring of 2017 and Monday, 7/3, I finally got to check it out. I had the chicken + Avo Sandwich ($5.25) and it was very tasty. My friend had a salad and Aussie Toast and both looked great, fresh, interesting and inexpensive! Dear friend and I sat side by side and talked about life and Office 365 (we are both in training). The Red Elm was a perfect spot to meet with a charming interior (I’m a sucker for exposed brick), free wifi and good food. Note to self, they have a private meeting room. My groups are always looking for a private meeting room! More information can be found on their website and Facebook page.
The Café is located in the Pochert Building, which is adjacent to the Kellogg Sicker building, (previously Browne’s Star Grill) which I noticed is also being renovated. A marvelous blog entry about both building can be found at the Historic Tacoma Blog.
I was driving around this morning in search of a cup of Joe when I went past Tacoma’s Bartending Academy at 1036 South Sprague Avenue, Tacoma. I like the way the light reflects on the wet street. The architect for the 1907 building was C.E. Heath. It was originally built as a store (don’t know what type) and for sometime in the 1940s it was the Thoralf Hagen Barber Shop and now it is the Bartending Academy.
The neighborhood store at 721 S I St, Tacoma, WA 98405 is situated on the corner of South I Street and South 8th. It was constructed in 1949 as the Bay State Market.
Driving around Tacoma I found The Farm by Hug, which I of course read as the Hug Farm. I loved the idea of growing hugs! And the actuality of the garden was almost as good. It is a community garden sponsored by the Hilltop Urban Gardens. Their mission is “to develop systems for food sovereignty and create racial and economic justice”. To learn more, go to their website.
The Basket Nook at 1007 Martin Luther King, Tacoma, WA is one of the Hilltop’s oldest businesses. It was originally “The Launderette” Tacoma’s first laundry with
individual automatic machines. It opened in 1947. By 1949 the business had evolved into a Laundromat with baskets and eventually it became baskets with gifts and now is primarily gifts. The delightful owner said he had been there for 33 years come January. He must have started really young!
Anyway, I had always thought it was primarily baskets, but the store was full of interesting unique items. I bought a few items for my mom’s Christmas stocking.
I really love the FlowerHouse at 618 South 15th Street (and South ‘G’ Street)! It is a temporary photographic art instillation by Duncan Price and funded through a grant from the Tacoma Artists Initiative Program (TAIP). Each window in this 1907, three story house (apartments?) has a full paned photography of a flower which is back-lighted.
http://tacomaarts.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/botanicals-are-ablaze-in-flowerhouse-on-the-hilltop/
http://www.duncanpricephotography.com/
At least nine Save A Lot Stores in the Puget Sound are closing including the one at 1105 Martin Luther King in Tacoma’s Hilltop. I remember in July 1999 when the building was a recently constructed as a Rite Aid drug Pharmacy. An entire block was demolished to make way for the Rite Aid. In January 2005 the Rite Aid closed and in September 2006 the Save-A-Lot Extreme Value Grocery Store opened.
Larsen Pharmacy had been on the site (or part of the site) as of 1938 and Harold Meyer Drug Store was there as of 1944. Kellogg & Ford Building was there as of 1905. The J. Anton Mueller store was there in 1916.
The other day I found a flyer on my car window bringing awareness of a proposed half way house on the Hilltop. The building is a non assuming single family house, but from what I’ve read it is in close proximity to a school, a boys and girls club and a daycare. The facebook page against the proposed use can be found here http://www.facebook.com/nograntave.halfwayhouse. An article on the disputed house can be found here http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/07/10/2210752/hilltop-residents-share-sex-offender.html. There are many signs scattered throughout the neighborhood, such as the one below.
I’ve been wanting to snap a photo of the old Wonderbread Building at the corner of Sprague Avenue and South 7th (703 South Sprague) for ages The property began life as the Matthaei Bread Company in 1913 at a cost of $30,000. The formal opening was in April 1913 and it was known as the plant of 150 windows.
The parent company, Interstate Bakeries Corp, went bankrupt in 2004 and this outlet closed. As of 2007 the property was up for sale, but it has been sitting vacant for ages now. An article in the Weekly Volcano mentions a proposed demolition of the building with a new retail/office facility, but it has been a couple of years and I see no evidence of new development. http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/entertainment/spew-blog/2010/05/tacoma-wonder-bread-building-demolition/
A picture of the building from the 1920s can be found here http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/buildings/bldg1image.asp?j=1&o=2&n=25402&i=6392#text
