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Month: August 2021

oral history

Clayton’s Memories

Early-day Tacoma remembered as a busy, pleasant place Clayton Rubidge was born in Tacoma in 1902 and lived here all his life. His recollections give us a look at the city at the time. A lifelong Tacoman, Clayton Rubidge dictated his memories about the Tacoma of his boyhood to Joan Hokanson Harelson an unknown number of years ago. In 2015 she sent the memoir to … Continue reading Clayton’s Memories

tacomahistoricalsocietyAugust 24, 2021Leave a comment

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We're not fooling, those really are dresses made of daffodils! On April 1, 1939, these two unidentified young women rode on a float in the sixth annual Daffodil Parade wearing dresses and hats made completely of flowers. They smiled brightly from under flower-covered hats tied with chiffon bows underneath their chins and carried umbrellas.
A four-door Oldsmobile sedan was parked outside of Konsmo Appliance on So. 12th St. and Prospect on March 31, 1960, along with stacked boxes of televisions. Konsmo had been at this location since its grand opening on September 16, 1954. Signs posted on the store windows indicated automatic washers on sale at $169, dryers at $129, portable dishwashers at $169, water heaters at $87, organs ranging from $99 to $595, and televisions for $167-179.
With this year's Daffodil Parade coming up this weekend, we thought it was timely to share another photo from a parade of the past - in this case, from 1940. Twenty six floats participated in the 7th annual Daffodil Parade on March 30, 1940. The sun only peaked occasionally through the clouds to view the floats covered in the sunshine yellow flowers. The Kiwanis Club float had daffodil seahorses hitched to a seashell, because, why not! South sound residents understand that literally anything can be depicted in the medium of daffodils this time of year.
This photograph, taken on this date in 1925, captures the interior of a Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railway Barber Shop. An unidentified African American porter (barber) stands next to the barber chair and table. Razors and bottles of cologne, and containers of shaving cream or wax are visible on top of the table.
The Tacoma Young Business Women's Club paid a visit to the Legislative Building at the State Capitol, which was still under construction in March of 1927. They posed on the concrete steps in front of the building along with a few men and one small boy with a dog. The young women and accompanying Tacoma businessmen had stopped in Olympia on their way to the girls training school at Grand Mound where they put on a musical program for the girls.
100 years ago today, on March 26, 1923, a Model Bakery truck was photographed while parked outdoors at an unidentified location. It had recently been purchased from Griffith Motor Co., the downtown Dodge dealership, and joined a fleet of Dodge vehicles operated by the bakery. Model Bakery was located at the corner of South 38th and Yakima Avenue and was owned and operated by Gus Westerdale. Their motto was "Where Quality and Purity Counts."
Riders are patiently waiting for perhaps the next Greyhound bus to arrive at the Greyhound station at 14th and Pacific on March 25, 1957. Those pictured include a sailor, women in suits and hats, and men in a variety of sport coats. Any of our followers remember spending time in this space? What else do you notice in the picture?
Save the date and get your tickets today via the link in our bio.
In March 1920, cameras rolled as the electric powered "Olympian" pulled out from Tacoma and made history. This marked the formal opening of the Cascade division for electrically operated trains driven by 3000-volt current supplied by the glacier streams of the Cascades. Over 100 guests from Tacoma and Seattle (railroad officials, newsmen and politicos) were aboard a special pilot train that preceded the Olympian. The Olympian made its maiden electric powered ascent through the passages of the snow draped Cascades to its summit where the special train was sidetracked so the Olympian could continue on to Chicago. The special train would travel to Cle Elum and back to Tacoma. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul train reached speeds up to 60 mph with barely any effort and without puffs of black smoke. It descended as smoothly as it ascended, proving that cross country electrical trains were viable.

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