Stadium High School - Tacoma, Washington
Posted by: 
Hikenutty
N 47° 15.952 W 122° 26.895
10T E 541738 N 5234857
Quick Description: Stadium High School, originally built as a luxury hotel by the Northern Pacific Railroad, was converted to a high school in 1906 after it was gutted by a fire.
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 5/6/2007 9:33:25 AM
Waymark Code: WM1GQ9
Views: 521
Long Description:The following excerpt is from
Washington: A Guide to the
Evergreen State from the Tacoma "Points of Interest" section.
The STADIUM HIGH SCHOOL, 111 N. E St., occupies a
high bluff overlooking Commencement Bay. First built as a hotel by
the Northern Pacific Railroad, the building was converted into a
school in 1906, after the interior had been burned out. The
structure, designed by Frederick Heath, is a fine example of early
French Renaissance architecture, somewhat reminiscent of the Castle
of Blois in France. The front step, a slab 20 feet long, 6 feet
wide, and 16 inches deep, was cut from a granite boulder near Fern
Hill.
Immediately adjoining the high school on the NW is the
STADIUM. Once a wooded gulch, now a great classical amphitheater,
it is a beauty spot on the Tacoma shoreline. The bowl, with grassy
slopes above, accomodates 40,000 spectators. General Morton
Matthews McCarver, who came to Tacoma from Oregon in 1868, built
his first home, a log cabin, on the site now occupied by the
Stadium, nearest the present State Historical Building. p.
273
Stadium High School was originally intended by its financiers, the
Northern Pacific Railroad Company and Tacoma Land Company, to be
one of the finest luxury hotels on the Pacific Coast. In 1890 they
purchased a nine-acre tract of land on a high bluff overlooking
Commencement Bay, and solicited architectural designs and bids for
the building.
Construction of the hotel--known both as the Olympic and the
Tourist--began in 1891, but came to a screeching halt in 1893 in
the wake of a nationwide financial panic and depression. The
unfinished shell was then used to store lumber, until a devastating
fire gutted the building in October 1898. The Northern Pacific
Railroad gave up the idea of finishing the hotel and began taking
bricks from the burned-out structure in 1901 to build train depots
in Montana and Idaho. Fortunately, a number of Tacoma citizens had
other ideas for the building.
The city's school district was in great need of a building for
its high school. A deal to purchase the property was quickly made
with the owners and the building project was completed in 1906 at a
total cost of approximately $500,000. The Tacoma School District
had paid $34,500 for the property.
The High School (then Tacoma High School) was also in need of a
stadium and chose to build it in the ravine below the building.
Construction began on "the Bowl" in April of 1909. A steam shovel
and sluicing pipes moved more than 180,000 cubic yards of dirt down
the sides of the gulch until it half-filled the great cavity to
form a level playfield of two and a half acres. Thousands of board
feet of lumber were hand cut to make the forms for the seats, which
were molded in concrete. The original seats (with an estimated
seating capacity of 32,000) rose 31 tiers high, with the top seat
52 feet above the field level. Be sure to look at the drawings of
the bowl in the photo gallery. Because it is fenced and school
property, we were unable to enter the stadium for photos.
Louis Armstrong performed in the bowl, as did famous opera
singers. Many of national fame spoke to capacity crowds on various
occasions, including Gen. John Pershing, France's Marshal Foch,
Babe Ruth, and presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and
Warren Harding.
The school recently underwent a long renovation and reopened for
the 2006/2007 school year to celebrate its 100th Anniversary.
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