ca. 1904. The Northern Pacific Railroad built a passenger station at 1701 Commerce Street in its western terminus city in 1883. By 1892, Tacoma had become a major West Coast city; this prompted the railroad to relocate its industrial repair shops to South Tacoma and move the station to the shops' former site on Pacific Avenue, shown here. Tacomans were outraged when NP President Henry Villard refused to build a grand station to complement the city's cosmopolitan architecture and disdainfully referred to the small building as the "Villard Depot". It was finally demolished in 1909 and replaced with the present Union Depot structure.

Railroad stations--Tacoma; Cityscapes--Tacoma;