Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
2213-2
Date(s)
- 1890 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
ca. 1890. This portrait of Frank C. Ross was taken in 1891, the year he sold the Tacoma and Lake City Railroad to the Union Pacific Railroad for $153,000. His top hat, double breasted Prince Albert, light overcoat, boutonniere and mutton chop whiskers were typical dress for an affluent businessman of the period. The Tacoma railroad operated from North 25th Street & Union to Lake City. Union Pacific proposed to extend the line from Portland to the Canadian border in exchange for concessions from Tacoma, such as city right of way, land for terminals and waterfrontage for warehouses and docks for their Pacific Mail ships. The Union Pacific sold the Tacoma line to John S. Baker and Robert Wingate whose attempts to keep the railroad afloat failed. They stopped operations in 1897. Mr. Ross celebrated his 80th birthday on March 3, 1938. He was still championing the development of the Tideflats that he had proposed 50 years before. Copy made for T.Times columnist E. T. Short, June of 1936. (T. Times 6/11/1936, pg. 5; T. Times 3/21/1938, pg. 5)
Ross, Frank C.; Tacoma & Lake City Railroad (Tacoma); Men--Clothing & dress--Tacoma--1890-1900;