Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
D49198-4
Date(s)
- 1950-04-12 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
The Pierce County Courthouse was built in 1892 and served for 70 years until it was abandoned and demolished following the construction of the current County-City Building on Tacoma Ave. Constructed at a cost of $743,000, the Romanesque building of Wilkeson and Pittsburgh grey freestone finished with Tenino bluestone was almost an exact duplicate of architect Henry Hobson Richardson's courthouse in Pittsburgh, Pa. The building was three stories and the central tower was 230 feet tall. The tower's clock, added in 1907, was four feet in diameter and faced on all four sides. The plans for the building included secret stairways, hideouts and a hanging room, reportedly used to hang two prisoners. The cathedral type building was demolished in 1959. (TNT'S "Tacoma Landmarks by Thompson" reprints from the TNT Calendars and Sunday Magazine")
Pierce County Courthouse (Tacoma); Historic buildings--Tacoma;