Tacoma: Electric City of the Pacific Coast, 1904

In this connection the fact should be mentioned that Tacoma is not only the great mart for Washington fir, spruce, hemlock, pine and cedar—soft woods, but has command also of abundant supplies of hard woods, such as maple, oak and ash, which are also found in Western Washington. Among the new Tacoma industries of 1904 is a large plant for the manufacture of parlor furniture from hard woods such as are obtainable in this vicinity or will be brought from the tropical forests of the Philippine Islands by steamships plying between this port and Manila.

Railway Construction and Repair Plants.

The second largest manufacturing plant in Tacoma which is also the largest plant of its description in the Pacific Northwest, is the railway construction and repair plant of the Northern Pacific Railway at South Tacoma. This enormous plant furnishes employment for 800 men and manufactures and repairs everything in the line of motive power or rolling stock for railroad use. A $60,000 building for an additional boiler shop is now being erected to enlarge the facilities for locomotive work. The shops of the Tacoma Eastern railroad and the Tacoma Railway & Power Company are also located at Tacoma. Adjoining the Northern Pacific plant is a large plant of the Griffin Car Wheel Works, and not far distant from South Tacoma is the largest rolling mill in the State, the plant of the Western Iron & Steel Works at Lakeview. Allied to this class of industrial enterprises are numerous foundries and machine shops for the manufacture of stationary and marine engines and boilers, machinery, saws, architectural iron, bridges, and other products of brass, tin, copper, iron and steel. The Puget Sound Dry Dock & Machine Company, of Tacoma, operates the largest private drydock north of San Francisco.

Largest Smelter on the Coast.

Still another line of industry in which Tacoma takes the lead, is in the reduction of ores of gold, silver, lead, copper and other metals. The Tacoma Smelting Company’s plant on the waterfront at the north end of the city is the largest smelter on the Pacific Coast. In 1902 the plant was enlarged by the addition of huge copper reduction works which began operations in September, 1902, and a copper refinery, the only plant of its kind west of Great Falls, Montana, is now in course of construction. The Tacoma Smelter began operations in September, 1890. In 1891 an average of fifty-eight men were employed, and the value of the output was $781,133.38. Five hundred men are now employed at the smelter and the output of the plant for the year 1903 was as follows:

The amount paid in wages in 1903 was $264,767.60, freight paid to Northern Pacific railway, $336,751.85, and freight paid to vessels, $164,392.55.

Flour Mills and Cereal Plants.

Tacoma is the chief flour milling city of the Pacific Northwest. The product of its flour mills in 1903 was valued at $4,075,000. The Puget Sound Flouring Mills Company operate the largest flour mill in the State at Tacoma. The Tacoma Grain Company’s mill adjoining Elevator A was erected in 1902. The Sperry Milling Company, the largest millers in California, in connection with the Tacoma Warehouse & Elevator Company, are erecting a large mill on the waterfront adjoining Elevator B. The Albers Brothers Milling Company are about to erect another large flour and cereal mill on the City Waterway. The plant of the Pacific Starch Company, erected at a cost of $108,000 and opened in August, 1903, for the manufacture of non-chemical wheat starch, is the largest wheat starch factory in the United States. The Coast Cereal Company have erected this year and are now operating a large cereal plant at South Tacoma.

Brewing and Malting Establishments.

Tacoma has two large breweries. The plant of the Pacific Brewing & Malting Company has been enlarged by the erection of three large cellars, increasing the capacity of the plant to 150,000 barrels a year. Malt is manufactured at Tacoma, not only by local brewers for their own use, but also for the trade. The Puget Sound Malting Company is the only plant on the Coast north of San Francisco engaged exclusively in the manufacture of malt, and supplies the trade in Eastern Washington, Oregon and Alaska, besides the Sound cities. The plant has been doubled in capacity to 240,000 bushels per year since January 1, 1904.

Tacoma has the largest stockyards and slaughtering and meat packing establishment west of the Missouri River Valley. The new plant of the Carstens Packing Company on the tideflats is pronounced to be the best equipped and most complete and up-to-date packing house in the United States. Its capacity is 250 cattle, 500 sheep and 500 hogs per day. It will shortly be in full operation employing 300 men. The plant of the Pacific Cold Storage Company prepares meats for a large trade in Alaska. Tacoma has also large fish canneries, pickling and preserving works, bottling establishments, mineral and soda-water works, coffee and spice mills, flavoring extract and chemical works and candy factories. A large plant is now being erected for the manufacture of crackers and biscuits.

Among the other lines of industry in Tacoma not already enumerated are mills or factories for the manufacture of brick and tile; brushes and brooms; artificial ice; soap; tannery products; shoe uppers; boots and shoes; buggy-tops; furs and for goods; clothing; shirts; overalls; stockings; underwear; knit-goods; tents, awnings and sails; paper boxes; fish baskets; oilskin garments and other goods; cigars; cigar boxes; metal bedsteads and woven-wire bed springs; cotton felt; carpets and rugs; excelsior; egg cases; enamels; furnaces and stoves; blank books, ledgers; stencils; rubber stamps; trunks and traveling bags; paints and varnish, and many other articles. TACOMA IS THE LEADING MANUFACTURING CITY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST.

Railway Facilities and Traffic.

TACOMA HAS THE MOST EXTENSIVE RAILWAY TERMINAL FACILITIES AND HANDLES MORE FREIGHT THAN ANY OTHER CITY IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. The Northern Pacific railway has expended many millions in improvements on the Tacoma waterfront. The official figures furnished by the railroads showing the number of cars of pay freight consigned to each of the three leading cities of the Pacific Northwest during the year 1903 are as follows:

The Northern Pacific railway operates several distinct lines which radiate from and converge at Tacoma. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy operates through trains to and from Missouri River points and Tacoma, over the N. P. tracks from Billings, Montana. The Harriman system is to be extended to Tacoma from Portland. The Tacoma Eastern railroad is now in operation from Tacoma to Ashford, with a branch to Electron, 57.5 miles of track being now in operation. This railroad taps the rich timber, coal and agricultural lands on the southerly and westerly slopes of Mount Tacoma. The company owns and is developing extensive coal mines. It is about to extend into the “Big Bottom” country, as the rich and fertile valley of the Upper Cowlitz River is called, from three to twelve miles wide and sixty miles in length, one of the most desirable sections for settlement in the State. The Tacoma Eastern railroad is the gateway to Mount Tacoma and the National Park. The federal government is now constructing a wagon road to Paradise Valley and the Camp of the Clouds, which will connect with the railroad. Paradise Valley and Mount Tacoma are destined to become a great resort for tourists.

Electric Railway Systems.

The general offices of the Puget Sound Electric Railway, operating fifty-three miles of standard gauge electric railway, are at Tacoma. The main line extends from Tacoma to Seattle, with a branch to Renton, twelve miles from Seattle, and an extensive logging road from Edgewood, near Tacoma, through the timber country towards Brown’s Point. This is pronounced to be one of the finest equipped, best constructed and operated electric railways in the country. Thirty-four trains arrive or leave Tacoma daily between six o’clock A. M. and midnight. The road has been in operation about two years and is aiding materially in the settlement and development of the rich Puyallup and White River Valleys between Tacoma and Seattle.

The Tacoma Railway & Power Company operates 85¼ miles of city and suburban electric and cable railways at Tacoma. Lines are operated to Puyallup, 16 miles; to Spanaway, 14 miles, and Steilacoom, 13 miles distant, bringing these towns into close touch with Tacoma, and facilitating the growth of the city’s suburbs. About 400 men are regularly employed as trainmen, trackmen, in the shops and general offices. The increase in the number of passengers carried during the past year is not less than 5,000 per day.

Tacoma’s Ocean Commerce.

Tacoma’s ocean commerce exceeds in magnitude and value that of every other port on the Pacific Coast with the exception of San Francisco. President James J. Hill, of the Great Northern Railway, explained the fact with the epigrammatic remark: “Tacoma has the facilities.” Tacoma possesses one of the finest harbors in the world and has the most extensive wharves and warehouses for handling ocean traffic on the Pacific Coast.

Tacoma handles the largest share of the foreign trade of the North Pacific Coast, the chief ports of which are Tacoma, Portland and Seattle. The imports and exports of these three ports for ten years from July 1, 1894, to June 30, 1904, inclusive, as shown by the official customs reports, were valued as follows:

Tacoma is the leading port of the Puget Sound customs district, the headquarters of which are at Port Townsend, and which includes Tacoma, Seattle and fourteen other ports. Of the total foreign commerce of the Puget Sound district, Tacoma handles more than 50 per cent., Seattle less than 30 per cent., and the balance is distributed between fourteen other ports in the district. The following are the official figures showing the imports, exports and total foreign commerce of Tacoma, Seattle, and the Puget Sound district for the first six months of 1904:

In ten years from 1894 to 1903, inclusive, the Puget Sound customs district, of which Tacoma is the chief port, rose from twenty-first to ninth in the magnitude of its foreign commerce among the customs districts of the United States. For the year ending June 30, 1903, Puget Sound was the sixth district in the United States in the tonnage of American and foreign vessels entered and cleared in the foreign trade. The leading customs districts, in the order of their rank in tonnage entered and cleared, are New York, Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, Puget Sound, San Francisco, Galveston, Portland (Maine), and Pensacola.

While Puget Sound ranks ninth among the customs districts of the United States in the magnitude of its ocean commerce, measured by the value of its imports and exports, this district stands first in the United States in exports of manufactured lumber, boards, deals and planks; shingles; fowls, and bristles. Second in exports of sheep, buckwheat, oats, baking powder, cotton cloths, dried herring, canned salmon, hay, malt liquors and manufactures of tin. Third in exports of cycles, ginseng, eider, copper ore, printing paper, milk and onions. Fourth in exports of barley, wheat, wheat flour, bran, middlings and mill-feed, candies, canned fruits and gunpowder. Fifth in exports of eggs and malt. Sixth in exports of furniture, salt, hogs, oysters, hops and nursery stock. Seventh in exports of horses and copper, and eighth in exports of fresh fish.

Tacoma’s ocean commerce may be classified as foreign and coastwise. The latter includes chiefly shipments to and receipts by water from Alaska, Hawaii and California. The foreign trade of Tacoma extends to every continent on the globe and to the islands of the sea. The coastwise receipts are chiefly ores, salmon and furs from Alaska, and fruits, general merchandise and manufactures from California. The coastwise shipments consist chiefly of merchandise sold by Tacoma jobbers to customers in Alaska, provisions, machinery, lumber, feed, etc.; bullion, coal, lumber and flour to California, and coal, lumber and merchandise to Hawaii. The foreign commerce of the port consists of imports of silk, tea, mattings, Manila hemp, and other Oriental products, ores for the Tacoma smelter, grain bags for Washington wheat, cement and fire-bricks for building purposes, iron and steel and other foreign commodities imported into the United States; and exports the most valuable of which are Washington products, wheat, flour, canned and salt salmon, lumber, bottled beer, barley, hay and oats, besides cotton, domestics, bicycles, tobacco and other products and manufactures of Eastern and Southern States. But by far the greater part of Tacoma’s exports are products of the State or of Tacoma mills.

Mistress of the Oriental Trade.

The Oriental trade of the Pacific Coast now centers at Tacoma. In June, 1892, the first steamship for the Orient from Puget Sound was dispatched from Tacoma. In 1903, forty-four regular liners sailed from Tacoma for the Orient, carrying cargoes valued at $8,149,906 from Tacoma, and cargo from Seattle valued at $946,318.

Tacoma is the home port of the Boston Steamship Company, which operates a line of five large steamships of American build and registry between Puget Sound and the Orient. This line was established in July, 1902. During the first two years of its operation, there were thirty-five sailings from Tacoma for the Orient and thirty-two arrivals by vessels of the line. Cargoes of foreign merchandise valued at $6,146,488 were landed at Tacoma, while domestic merchandise for export to the value of $6,444,911 was loaded on vessels of the line at this port. Seattle furnished additional cargo for the line to the value of $2,505,935. Tacoma has handled 83.4 per cent. of the total foreign commerce carried by the Boston Steamship Company since the inauguration of its Puget Sound-Oriental line.

The China Mutual Steamship Company, Ltd., and the Ocean Steamship Company, Ltd., both of which are owned by Alfred Holt & Company, British ship owners, operate a joint service between Tacoma and Liverpool and Glasgow by way of the Orient, Suez Canal and Mediterranean route. Dodwell & Company, the Tacoma agents of the line, shipped from Tacoma in 1903, for the Orient and Europe, by this service and the smaller steamships of the Northern Pacific Steamship Company, cargoes valued at $4,635,325, with additional cargo from Seattle valued at $31,805. The steamships Tacoma, Victoria and Olympia, for many years in the Tacoma-Oriental trade, have recently been sold, the traffic having outgrown their capacity. The cargo capacity of these pioneer steamships in Tacoma’s Oriental trade ranged from 3,000 to 3,800 tons. The new steamships in the service have cargo capacity ranging from 6,739 tons to 18,000 tons. The Shawmut and Tremont of the Boston Steamship Company, and the Ning Chow, the Oanfa and the Keemun of the Holt lines, are the largest carriers in the Trans-Pacific trade.

The Kosmos Line operates a regular service between Puget Sound and Hamburg by way of Mexican, Central and South American ports. In 1903 there were fifteen sailings from Puget Sound by steamships of this line, Tacoma furnishing nearly 70 per cent. of the total cargoes carried from the Sound.

The largest vessels engaged in the coastwise trade from Tacoma are the steamships of the American-Hawaiian line operating from Tacoma to Honolulu and New York, returning by way of San Francisco. The Arizonian, Alaskan and Texan of this line, are vessels of 8,671 tons gross register and 12,000 tons cargo capacity. There were fourteen sailings from Tacoma for Honolulu and New York by this line in 1903.

Two lines of steamships are operated regularly between Tacoma and other Sound ports and San Francisco, and several lines to Alaska. A fleet of colliers also plies constantly between Tacoma and San Francisco, carrying coal from this port. In 1902, 375,183 tons of coal were shipped as cargo from this port, exclusive of fuel for steamships. In 1903, the shipments of coal increased to 488,723 tons.

Tacoma handles the largest share of the staple products of the State of Washington, lumber, wheat, flour and coal. The shipments of lumber and coal have already been stated. Tacoma’s facilities for the handling of wheat are unequalled at any other port in the world. The new wheat warehouses erected in 1900 and 1901 on the city waterway, are the longest in the world, being 2,360 feet in length and 148 feet in width. They doubled the warehouse capacity for grain at this port and afford admirable facilities for receiving the wheat from the cars, cleaning and sacking it and loading it on ocean carriers. There are also two enormous grain elevators and three large flour mills on the waterfront. Tacoma’s facilities for exporting wheat and flour are so extensive that in October, 1902, no less than twenty-five wheat carriers were loaded and dispatched and the exports of the month included upwards of 2,000,000 bushels of wheat and 200,000 barrels of flour.

Tacoma is now the leading wheat and flour shipping port on the Pacific Coast, and the customs district of Puget Sound, of which Tacoma is the leading port, now ranks fourth in the United States in both wheat and flour exports, and fourth also in the combined exports of wheat and wheat flour reduced to wheat measure, each barrel of flour being equivalent to four and one-half bushels of wheat.

THE PUGET SOUND CUSTOMS DISTRICT, OF WHICH TACOMA IS THE LEADING PORT, HANDLING 90 PER CENT. OF THE WHEAT AND 60 PER CENT. OF THE FLOUR EXPORTS OF THE DISTRICT, ROSE FROM TENTH TO FOURTH PLACE IN WHEAT EXPORTS AND FROM SEVENTH TO FOURTH PLACE IN FLOUR EXPORTS IN THREE YEARS FROM 1900 TO 1903.

The following table, compiled from the records of the Tacoma harbormaster, shows the total value of Tacoma’s ocean commerce, foreign and coastwise, for the last five years:

Wholesale and Jobbing Trade.

Tacoma has a large and steadily increasing jobbing trade. Seventeen individual firms and corporations are engaged in the export trade in grain. There are sixty-three concerns engaged in the manufacture or sale of lumber, many of the number being large wholesalers. There are a number of importing houses which handle Oriental goods, fire-brick, cement, grain bags and other foreign products for which there is a local demand.

Wholesale houses are established at Tacoma which supply the trade in groceries and provisions, produce, cereals, flour and feed, meats, fish, wines and liquors, confectionery, tobacco and cigars, dry goods and notions, furs, boots and shoes, drugs, paints and oils, hardware, building materials and contractors’ supplies, belting and hose, machinery and mill supplies, plumbers’ supplies, wool, paper, furniture, and coal. There are numerous commission houses and manufacturers’ agents. The West Coast Grocery Company, of Tacoma, has the largest trade in Alaska of any grocery house in the Northwest. The first and only exclusively wholesale house established on Puget Sound in the trade in dry goods and notions was located and opened at Tacoma in January, 1903, after a careful canvass of the merits of other cities. This was quickly followed by the establishment of a wholesale notion house, also handling dry goods. The largest wholesale furniture house in the Pacific Northwest is at Tacoma. One hundred and forty-four wholesale and jobbing houses handled a trade amounting to $26,839,000 in 1903. Two hundred and eighty-six new business houses were opened in Tacoma during 1903, while only three were closed. These figures were furnished by the mercantile agencies.

Banks and Banking.

Tacoma has three national banks, two state banks and one foreign banking corporation, the London & San Francisco Bank, Ltd. There are also various institutions for savings and building loans. The deposits in the banks of discount and deposit aggregate $8,000,000 and are constantly increasing.

Increase in Bank Clearings.

Tacoma’s bank clearings reflect the marvelous growth of business transacted in this city. The total bank clearings for twelve months ending June 30, 1904, amounted to $102,301,642, as compared with $93,348,272 during the previous fiscal year, $51,838,768 during twelve months ending June 30, 1900, and $24,550,442 during twelve months ending June 30, 1897. TACOMA’S BANK CLEARINGS HAVE INCREASED AT THE RATE OF 97.3 PER CENT. IN FOUR YEARS AND AT THE RATE OF 316.7 PER CENT. IN SEVEN YEARS.

Realty Transfers and Improvements.

The number of real estate conveyances file for record during twelve months ended June 30, 1904, was 6,513, and the amount of expressed consideration was $6,302,837. This is an increase over the previous year of $1,096,206, or at the rate of 21.1 per cent., and in two years of $2,781,428, or at the rate of 79.0 per cent.

Activity in Building Operations.

There has been a phenomenal increase in building operations at Tacoma amounting to no less than 855.8 per cent. in five years last past. The following is the official record of the building inspector, showing the number and estimated cost of dwellings and total building operations for which permits were issued during the last six years. The building inspector’s record does not cover a large amount of building in the immediate suburbs of Tacoma, for industrial and residence purposes.

Notwithstanding the investment of millions of dollars in Tacoma realty and improvements, the mortgage indebtedness shows no appreciable increase. In 1903, realty transfers reciting a consideration of $4,646,537, were recorded and permits were issued in the city of Tacoma for improvements estimated to cost $1,700,000. The net increase in the mortgage indebtedness, as shown by the record of mortgages and mortgage releases, was $169,655, or only 2.6 per cent. of the amount involved in real estate purchases and improvements.

Federal Building and Collections.

The federal government has purchased a site for a much needed public building at Tacoma, which will shortly be erected. Tacoma is the headquarters of the new Internal Revenue Collection District of Washington and Alaska. Federal collections at Tacoma for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, were as follows: Internal revenue, $688,696.50; customs, $301,039.32; postoffice receipts, $113,598.66; total, $1,103,334.48. Postoffice receipts have increased at the rate of 132.1 per cent. in seven years.

Municipal Improvements and Utilities.

Extensive municipal improvements are in progress. Among the more important are several miles of asphalt and brick paving; fifty miles of new sidewalks, principally of cement; sewers, water mains and bridges. Tacoma owns and operates its own water and electric lighting plants, supplying both water and light to private consumers. The city procures current from the power companies at the lowest rates paid in the United States and receives a large and increasing revenue from operation, notwithstanding recent reductions in rates, which are as low to private consumers as in any American city. Tacoma maintains an efficient free employment bureau.

Assessment and Bonded Debt.

The assessed valuation of taxable property in Tacoma in 1903 was $22,468,988. The bonded indebtedness, exclusive of the water and light debt, is $1,743,000. The city has no floating indebtedness and has a sinking fund amounting to $135,734.52, largely invested in Tacoma city bonds bought in the market at 110. The city owns property valued at $3,250,000. The light and water debt of $2,080,000 represents the capital invested in a profitable business which produces a revenue to the city.

Schools, Colleges and Churches.

Tacoma has twenty-one public schools of the primary and grammar school grades and a high school. A magnificent building with accommodations for 1,200 pupils is being erected for the high school. The enrollment in the public schools for the year 1903-04 was 8,939 and the average daily attendance 7,066. The value of school property in the district is $988,040, while the total liabilities, including bond and warrant indebtedness amounted to $492,523.02 on June 30, 1904, with a cash balance on hand of $36,554.82.

Tacoma is the seat of Whitworth College, founded and conducted by the Presbyterian Church, which occupies a conspicuous location overlooking the Sound. The University of Puget Sound is under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The University occupies a fine new building at the West End. The Annie Wright Seminary is a boarding and day school for girls. It is liberally endowed and has a valuable property near Wright Park. The Pacific Lutheran Academy and Business College is at Parkland, a suburb at the south. Vachon College is at Burton, on Quartermaster Harbor. The Academy of the Visitation and St. Aquinas Academy are schools for girls under Roman Catholic auspices. There are also two business colleges, a training school for nurses in connection with the Fannie Paddock Hospital, and schools of music and art.

Tacoma has upwards of eighty church organizations, representing all the leading religious denominations. Tacoma is the see city of the Episcopal Jurisdiction of Olympia.

Ferry Museum and New Public Library.

The Ferry Museum occupies the fourth and fifth floors of the County Court House. It has extensive collections of natural history, art, sculpture, Indian baskets and relics, Oriental curios and the like. The Tozier exhibit is the most extensive Indian collection in the world.

Tacoma has a new public library building completed and opened in 1903, the gift to the city of Andrew Carnegie, who gave $75,000 for the building, the city providing the site. The library contains 30,000 volumes.

Hospitals and Asylums.

There are two large and well-equipped general hospitals at Tacoma, St. Joseph’s Hospital, and the Fannie C. Paddock Memorial Hospital, also a large new Pierce County Hospital. A $100,000 hospital for the employes of the Northern Pacific railway is now building. At Steilacoom is the Western Washington State Hospital for the Insane. There are three children’s homes for orphans or friendless children, and numerous benevolent and charitable institutions.

800 Acres of Public Parks.

Tacoma has 800 acres of beautiful parks. Point Defiance Park occupies the northerly extremity of the peninsula on which Tacoma is built. It has about three miles of shore line on the Sound and most of it is covered with giant fir. It is a park of unusual natural beauties and attractions. Wright Park is a garden, twenty-eight acres in extent in the heart of the city, with a great variety of shrubs, trees and flowers.

Opportunities.

Tacoma, the industrial and commercial center of the Empire State of the Coast, is an inviting field for enterprise and effort and offers boundless opportunities for the profitable employment of capital in manufactures, trade, commerce and transportation, and rich rewards for the exercise of brains and well-directed energies.

BUILDING PERMITS ISSUED DURING THREE YEARS ENDING JUNE 30, 1904, BY MONTHS.

TACOMA BANK CLEARINGS.

POST OFFICE RECEIPTS.