Tag Archives: Tacoma Public Library

Gritty City Gift Fair

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Today’s New Place of the Day is the Speakeasy Arts Cooperative’s Gritty City Gift Fair. The fair was larger than I thought it would be and filled with quality crafts and art. I picked up a couple of holiday gifts and a Tacoma — Love it or Leave it t-shirt for myself. 🙂 The co-op is located in a historic building at 746 Broadway, in the Antique Row area.

Information from the Tacoma Public Library indicates that the building was constructed in the 1920s and has been used as a Used Car Department, Huletz Electric Co., Preservation Paint, Alma Ayres Women’s Wear, Washington State Liquor Store, and Time Machine Antiques.

Tacoma Little Theater Mural

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Tacoma Little Theater Mural

Originally uploaded by Gexydaf

This is an older photo (when it wasn’t raining) of today’s new place. The mural of a stage with famous characters and scenes is on the side of the Tacoma Little Theatre Building. The property is at 210 N. I Street in the Stadium District and had originally been an auto repair shop. It was sold to the Tacoma Drama League in 1940 and became a theater.

Per information from Tacoma Public Library the Tacoma Little Theatre is one of the oldest community theaters in existence in the United States. A photo of the building from 1960 can be found here.

http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images/dt6n.asp?un=2&pg=1&krequest=Tacoma+Little+Theatre&stemming=On&phonic=&fuzzy=&maxfiles=5000

Information about the theater is at http://www.tacomalittletheatre.com/

The mural was created by Mary Mann, who also did the mural on Stadium Thriftway. Check out her website, she does lovely work!
http://www.marycmann.com/about.html

Irving Park, more history than you’d think

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Originally uploaded by Gexydaf

 

I thought I’d best make some outside places my new place of the day, while I still have some daylight to work with. So, off I went to the 4+ acre Irving Park on Hosmer. It was a pretty typical park, a big field, restrooms, some playground equipment. I suspect what makes this park special is the view it has of Nalley Valley. But there was nobody in the park and I just wasn’t comfortable walking to the isolated area to check out the view. Maybe when I have company I’ll try that.

http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=664

The part is on the site of what use to be the Irving School, which was named after Washington Irving. The school was closed in 1930 and demolished in 1934. If you’d like to see a photo of some students from the Irving School in 1926, go here

http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images/dt6n.asp?un=11&krequest=subjects+contains+School+children+Tacoma+1920-1930&stemming=&phonic=&fuzzy=&maxfiles=