Stadium High School 1906 -
Tacoma, Washington
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TACOMA

[i]Polk claims a population of 49,761

[ii] In 1892, the worst section of town was Court "C", from 9th to 17th Streets. Known as "Opera Alley", it was lined with dance halls, gambling dens and brothels. This was considered one of the toughest police beats on the west coast and many dangerous criminals made it their destination.

Saloons were also a major problem, and in early Tacoma, they stayed open 24 hrs a day, seven days a week. There were 17 saloons on the upper Pacific beat alone, which covered Commerce and "A" Streets from 7^th to 13^th.

"Old Town" of the 1890's was also a rough beat, with 13 saloons in two blocks, 2 sailors boarding houses and as many as 19 sailing ships tied up at the docks at one time. 18 police officers covered the area from the Ruston smelter to the south end of the Old Town waterfront and there were plenty of fights to keep them busy.

Just north of the Police Station was a wide strip of beach, and if a fight started, the offenders were hustled off to this beach to finish their brawl. If they refused to go, or if they refused to fight once they got there, there were thrown into jail. There were as many as 18 men at a time in the Old Town Jail for fighting.

Each morning, the Old Town station would call headquarters downtown and they would dispatch the patrol wagon for the nights haul. Police Court was held over the city jail and plain drunks were fined $5 while fighters were fined $10 each.

[iii] Hose Company No. 1 was built at 5046 South Harrison St. in South Tacoma in 1892. This later became Engine Co. No. 7. A frame building at 4301 South L Street that housed Engine Company No. 8 was also completed. This was a volunteer company for a time.

The 1890's also brought a great depression. The city laid off twelve firefighters and closed some stations. To make matters even worse, the firefighters remained took a pay cut and even missed a few paydays; the city just did not enough money to pay them. In fact, if it was not for the newly opened People's Store, which collected enough money from other businesses to pay the firefighters' salaries and also buy feed for the horses, the firefighters would have threatened to quit.

[iv] "The steamers carried enough coal for 15 minutes. If a fire lasted any longer, other wagons had to haul coal from the closest station to the scene of action.

During those days of horse drawn apparatus the firemen were forced to zigzag up Tacoma's steep hills in order to pull the heavy equipment to hill top blazes."

[v] "The first proposal for a rapid transit system connecting Puget Sound communities was made more than a century ago.

In the summer of 1892 Lucien F. Cook, a Tacoma real estate dealer and inventor, set up a miniature working model of an elevated, electric-powered railroad. He invited visitors and especially investors to see the big toy in the Tacoma Post Office building at 1016 Pacific Ave.

Cook's contraption had two narrow tracks, one above the other, suspended from poles on a single line of piers. The car was designed to be suspended from the upper track and stabilized by horizontal wheels at the bottom of the car, bearing against the lower rail. The car would be very light and extremely narrow, only three feet wide with passengers in single file, one behind the other.

Cars would be constructed in varied length to seat from eight to 30 riders. Cook estimated that it would cost about $15,000 a mile to construct a track from Tacoma's Commencement Bay to Seattle's Elliott Bay, and that the trip would take 20 minutes.

Cook found enough support to be able to build a full-sized model, about a quarter-mile long, on the waterfront below the Tacoma Hotel, which stood on A Street Between 10th and 11th.

Test runs were conducted on the afternoon of Friday, Nov. 26. The first runs were made with an empty car. Those runs went so well that as many as 10 volunteers at a time risked the trip in the flimsy cars. There was no regulator to adjust the flow of power so the train's starts and stops were emphatically abrupt, but no one was hurt.

Civil engineer Henry Shaw, who served as motorman, said he would not be afraid to run a train at 100 miles an hour. Promoter Cook thought the upper limit would be 200 mph and spoke of the possibility of a transcontinental train that would deliver the New York morning papers to Tacoma at 1 p.m.

But the Panic of '93 struck a few months later. Investment capital disappeared, as did all mention in the papers of Lucien Cook and the overhead rapid transit system."

[vi]Polk claims a population of 52,329.

In 1893, Tacoma's Old City Hall is constructed at S 7th Street and Pacific Avenue. The Italian Renaissance style building is designed by E. A. Hatherton of San Francisco and features pressed brickwork, terra cotta ornamentation, and a copper tiled roof. The stately, ornate building with its arched and bracketed clock tower reflects the civic pride and promise of Tacoma immediately before the nationwide economic crash in the spring of 1893.

The brick walls at the base of the structure are eight feet thick and were made with bricks brought as ballast on ships. The clock tower is freestanding and its walls tilt inward as they rise, to increase the sense of height. Hugh C. Wallace, future United States ambassador to France, donated the clock and chimes in 1905 in memory of his daughter.

[vii]By 1893, the Mercantile Library, as the women called it, outgrew Mrs. Moore's sitting room. Its 2,000 volumes were given to the city for a free public library. The library was housed in a series of buildings in the downtown area until, in 1893, the library moved into the city hall.

City of Tacoma buys Tacoma Light and Water Co. on July 1, 1893.

[viii]On July 1, 1893, the City of Tacoma buys the drinking water and electrical power properties of Tacoma Light and Water Co. from Charles B. Wright (1822-1898) for $1.75 million. The deal is not a good one for the City, but it places Tacoma at the vanguard of the municipal ownership movement in Washington and in the nation.

In 1884, Northern Pacific Railroad President Charles Wright organized Tacoma Light and Water and acquired a franchise from the City Council to provide drinking water and electricity in Tacoma. This put competitor and City Council member John E. Burns out of business. In the words of historian Murray Morgan, Burns embarked on a campaign against "the Railroad Crowd, Philadelphia Nabobs, and the Dogfish Aristocracy, finding them impediments to civic progress, enemies of the working man, and dangers to the purity of drinking water". (Morgan, 315).

When railroad builder Nelson Bennett purchased the Tacoma Hotel from the Tacoma Land Co. (a subsidiary of the Northern Pacific), his water bill jumped from $75 a month to $502. Nelson complained to NP President Wright in Philadelphia. Wright then jacked up Bennett's home water bill too. Bennett went to the City Council, which was already concerned about cases of typhoid in the city. Drinking water flowed to the city in open flumes to humans and farm animals. Wright threatened to stop spending money on the water system and suggested that the City might like to buy it.

Wright and the Council negotiated a $1.75 million purchase price for the water and electrical systems. The voters approved the deal (with a margin of 104 votes in a three-fifths majority) on April 11, 1893. Tacoma soon learned that it had been the victim of some sharp dealings. The gas works was not included and Spanaway Lake was contaminated. The flumes were falling apart. One dam had failed. Other sources of fresh water turned out to be in private hands or smaller than advertised. The electrical plant was inadequate and in poor repair. The City had gone $300,000 over its debt limit so there was no money for repairs or improvements. After years of litigation, Wright's estate paid the City $125,000 in fees and damages.

Dissatisfaction with privately owned utilities was widespread and many other cities also entered the utility business to obtain lower rates and better service.