Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
842-9
Date(s)
- 1934-10-09 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
The Tacoma Grocery Company building at 2108-12 Pacific Avenue collapsed in the early morning hours of October 9, 1934, due to a faulty sprinkler system. The weight of thousands of cases of groceries coupled with tons of water from the company's sprinkling system caused the 27-year-old six-story brick building to collapse into the street. The front part of the building literally slid onto Pacific Avenue leaving four floors exposed; 50 feet of the roof caved in. Both the neighboring Hunt & Mottet Company building and the Tacoma Drug Company were apparently not damaged. Damages were expected to exceed $50,000; the building was insured. No one inside the building or on the ground was injured. The front of the building and the roof were rebuilt, and in the 1940s it was refaced with concrete. (T. Times, 10-9-34, pp. 1, 5) (filed with Argentum)
Building failures--Tacoma; Disasters--Tacoma--1930-1940; Tacoma Grocery Co. (Tacoma);