This is how the Merit Building, 315 So. 11th St., appeared near the close of 1931. Built in 1909, it housed the Merit Hotel (new in 1915) and the Hollywood Apparel Shop, Miller Furs, and the Olympic Dairy Store & Ice Cream Parlor. The Rhodes Bros. Department Store is on the right and the Market Street Drug Store on the left of the business block. The primary tenant, the Hotel Merit, opened in November of 1915 in its location near Market St. It contained 70 rooms newly furnished in mahogany and oak and hot and cold water in each room. The small hotel furnished its lobby in wicket and its smoking room, located just off the lobby, in oak and leather. H.K. Slauter was the hotel's proprietor. He was a former salesman with the Suter Jewelry store in Seattle. (Tacoma Sunday Ledger, 12-5-15, p. 28)

Merit Hotel (Tacoma); Hotels--Tacoma--1930-1940; Merit Building (Tacoma); Hollywood Apparel Shop (Tacoma); Miller's Furs (Tacoma); Olympic Dairy (Tacoma); Rhodes Brothers Department Store (Tacoma); Commercial streets--Tacoma--1930-1940;

Tacoma's Quaint Book Shop was located at 315 South 11th Street, next to Hotel Merit, Tacoma Music Company, Actors Dress Shop and Miller Fur Company. The bookstore was owned by J. Kenneth and Fay Hore who lived at 949 Ridgewood Avenue. Interior view of the Quaint Book Shop with "Operation Lifeline," "The Clock of History" and dictionaries on wood shelves. This photograph, taken on January 20, 1949, was ordered by Douglas Fir Plywood Association.

Bookstores--Tacoma; Books; Bookselling--Tacoma; Bookcases--Tacoma; Plywood; Quaint Book Shop (Tacoma); Douglas Fir Plywood Association (Tacoma);

Interior of "Quaint Book Shop", DFPA, Mrs. Leik. Located in the Merit Building, the book shop was owned by J.Kenneth Hore. Shelves and display racks, built of plywood, show books of all subjects while a woman takes a close look at a possible purchase. The store has two levels of display area.

Quaint Book Shop (Tacoma); Douglas Fir Plywood Association (Tacoma); Bookcases--Tacoma; Shelving--Tacoma; Bookstores--Tacoma; Books;