ca. 1889. Northern Pacific Headquarters at 621 Pacific Avenue, circa 1889. The railroad had chosen Tacoma as its western terminus in 1873; from that point, the city would grow furiously from a small hamlet to a metropolis of about 30,000 by 1890. Construction of Northern Pacific's stone and brick headquarters with its distinctive tower, located on the bluff overlooking their half-moon railroad yards, began in the summer of 1887 and was completed the following year. Its 53 offices and storerooms and 19 vaults were utilized by the Tacoma Land Company, Weyerhaeuser Company and Northern Pacific. Northern Pacific would sell the building to the City of Tacoma in 1922 as the railroad planned to move its offices to Seattle. Photograph courtesy of the John Ogden Collection. (Tacoma Rediviva, p. 27+) TPL-10172

Northern Pacific Headquarters Building (Tacoma); Northern Pacific Railway Co. (Tacoma);