Tag Archives: mural

The Kellogg – Sicker Building (Browne’s Star Grill)

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The  Kellogg Sicker Building at 1112 – 1116 Martin Luther King Jr. Way isn’t the most welcoming of buildings. The 1906 building is named after the builders Frank G. Kellogg and Robert Sicker.  Tenants over the years have included Essey & Macksoud Dry Goods, various physicians and dentists, Habid Nasser Dry Goods, Johnson’s Dry Goods & Clothing, Economy Drug Co., Geo. Clark’s Meats, Clark’s K Street Cash Market, Matsumoto’s Fruit Stand, Geo. Skaer’s Butter & Eggs, Fujimura Grocery, Nad Chemical Co., Anderson’s Grocery & Vegetable Market, Vic’s Market, Marshall-Wells Hardware, Coast to Coast Hardware, Cash Market, Marshall-Wells Store and Harold Meyer Drugs. Browne’s Star Grill relocated to this site in 1968 and operated there until September 2005. There is a great mural on the front.

The building now sits vacant and is owned by the City of Tacoma. There is a Facebook Page devoted to saving the building. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-the-Brownes-Star-Grill-Building/143544072391184

Great mural at Tacoma’s Fire Station #16

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Fire Station No. 16 at 7216 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, WA, 98406, is the site of art by Bob Henry titled Wilson Rams. The Tacoma-Pierce Co. Public Art Tour site (http://wspdsmap.ci.tacoma.wa.us/website/Art2/viewer.htm) says that the medium is Paint on canvas and the size is 10′ x 30′.

I love the bright colors and the fact that it is a local artist and a local scene! What I don’t like is that it is primarily visible from a small side street that leads to the driveway of the firestation and a small apartment complex. It would be great if more people could enjoy it!


German Pastry and Coffee Shop in Lakewood

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The German Pastry and Coffee Shop at 6108 Mt Tacoma Dr SW, Lakewood, WA 98499 is not the same thing as Hess Bakery and that confuses me. They both specialize in German Food, but have different strengths. Both of them are located in a brick building is known as European Square. Each of them has a sign on their door that says they are not affricated with the other. Well, OK. I’ll just go back and do Hess Bakery some other time.

The German Pastry and Coffee Shop has display cases and metal racks for tasty treats. I got two bags of cookies and two pieces of pastry, all for takeout. What I tasted at home was yummy. Maybe next time we’ll have lunch. I love the décor. There is one almost full wall mural of an alpine scene and many large jigsaw puzzles that have been framed.

 

Memorial Dumpstery

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I’ve long admired the bold graffiti style art on the dumpster at the corner of South 56th Street and South Sheridan. One side is abstract and the other gives homage to Vanessa, who lived between 1978 and 2003. I searched for information about this young woman, but had no luck. The art work is dated 2010.

      

St. Vincent de Paul Mural

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Tacoma is a city full of interesting murals, many of them recent. The mural on the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store Building (5009 South 56th Street) had Christopher Jordan & Kenji Stoll as the lead artists and was installed in the fall of 2010.

Here is an interesting article on some of the new murals. http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/09/05/1328964/painted-revival.html

Greeting from Fern Hill

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The Fern Hill neighborhood has a wonderful mural that boldly declares Greetings from Fern Hill! The mural is located on the corner of South 84th Street and South Park Avenue on the Foam and Fabric Building. The lead artist for the mural is Kelda Martensen.

This webpage shows the mural as it is being developed.

http://www.tacomaculture.org/arts/MuralsComplete.asp

Street Art in Tacoma

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Street Art by Gexydaf

This warm and sunny day I stopped at the corner of South 49th and Fawcett Avenue and captured the lovely street art. I don’t know who painted this street mural in the middle of the intersection, but it is really fun. Based on the hand prints there was at least one kid involved in the art. The center says “Be Here” and I think it says Groovy, but its partially faded away.  The Google Earth aerial photo below shows the intersection before the art was in place.

The Past Along South Tacoma Way

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South Tacoma Way has some spiffy public art. Today I stopped to admire this mural located at 5438 South Tacoma Way which features scenes from the strips past and present. The mural is on the Heritage Bank Building. Although that is the name of building, it is vacant with Heritage Bank is down the street at 5448 South Tacoma Avenue.

To see more photographs of the property both before and after the mural, go here.
http://www.tacomaculture.org/arts/murals.asp

    

Bryant Montessori Might be Mobile

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Bryant Montessori, located at 717 S. Grant Ave., Tacoma, WA 98405 is one of the Tacoma Schools that might be flux. In 1998, this school received a grant to become a public school using the Montessori method. It now provides preschool to 8th grade education.

The original Bryant building was constructed in 1891 and was named after William Cullen Bryant who is remembered for writing Thanatopsis (alright I don’t actually know that poem, but here it is)

https://www.msu.edu/~cloudsar/thanatop.htm

The original building was lovely and held elementary through high school classes and also housed the school board offices and administration. High school students in the late 1800s paid tuition fees and in 1897 it was reduced from $2.50 to $1.50 per month. In any case after 70 years, the building was demolished and the “new” Bryant opened in 1962. A photograph of the original building can be found here. http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/buildings/bldg1image.asp?j=2&o=2&n=15872&i=3774#text

The district proposal currently on the table is to close nearby Franklin Elementary School and use that building to house the Bryant program. Originally the intent had been to house the entire Bryant program at Franklin, but now it is looking more likely that the elementary portion of the Bryant program will move to Franklin and the middle school program would join Geiger Montessori which will move to the vacated Hunt Middle School. This would allow at least some of the Franklin students to at least have the option of staying in the Franklin Building if they wanted a Montessori style of education. Per the newspaper article below “A variety of programs, including Head Start and others, would move from the old Madison School site to the Bryant Elementary site”. Everybody clear?

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/03/10/1579446/tacoma-district-leans-toward-closing.html

Update 7/11 Bryant Montessori is staying put.

Hilltop Mural

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At 1012 South 11th Street in Tacoma’s Hilltop area there is a mural of four individuals against the background of Mt. Rainier. Per the Tacoma-Pierce County Public Art Tour website (Taylor.http://wspdsmap.ci.tacoma.wa.us/website/Art2/viewer.htm), “This mural memorializes key contributors to the Hilltop Community. Including, Alberta Canada, Ernest E. Brazil, Frank Russell, and Virginia Taylor”. It was created in 2004 by Bob Henry, who has other mural around town.

The artist’s website can be found here:

http://www.muralmastersnw.com/index.html