The John Dower Lumber Co. float in the 1935 Daffodil Parade. This floral tribute was the first prize winner in Division IV, commercial entries. It displayed a miniature house, all constructed of daffodils, with real glass windows.

Floats (parades)--Tacoma--1930-1940; Parades & processions--Tacoma--1930-1940; Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival (1935 : Tacoma);

The viewing stand for the 1935 Daffodil Parade, a daffodil fountain erected in Broadway Square, at 9th and Broadway. The framework for the fountain was 25 feet square and 25 feet high and was constructed by carpenters on loan from the Fisher Co., Rhodes Department store and the Hotel Winthrop. Into its chicken wire framework were thrust 100,000 daffodil blossoms, giving it a fresh, sunny yellow glow. Over 175,000 blossoms were used to decorate Pacific Avenue and over a million were used on the floats. (filed with Argentum)

Floats (parades)--Tacoma--1930-1940; Parades & processions--Tacoma--1930-1940; Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival (1935 : Tacoma);

The 1935 Daffodil Parade proceeds down 9th in front of the Roxy, now the Pantages. The 25 foot "daffodil fountain," the royal viewing stand, can be seen at the intersection of 9th and Broadway. The Girls' Drum & Bugle Corps of the John R. Thompson Post of the USWV is caught in mid action prancing down the street followed by a floral laden automobile, sponsored by the National Farmers' Union of Puyallup. Up the hill on 9th can be seen the Music Box, Rialto and the First Baptist Church. Crowds, many layers thick, have turned out to view the parade. (TDL 3/24/1935, pg. 1)

Floats (parades)--Tacoma--1930-1940; Parades & processions--Tacoma--1930-1940; Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival (1935 : Tacoma);

The 6th Avenue Business Men's Club entry in the 1935 Daffodil Parade and the winner of the $25 Sweepstakes prize for best float. The float features a flora replica of the Narrows Bridge. Disaster was narrowly averted the night before the parade when decorators ran out of flowers at midnight with the float unfinished. A delegation of volunteers journeyed out to pick 3,000 daffodils by moonlight at the Fox Island fields of Arthur Wright. The float was finished and declared the best of the fifty entered floats. It has over 18,000 blooms. (T. Times 3/25/1935, pg. 16) (filed with Argentum)

Floats (parades)--Tacoma--1930-1940; Parades & processions--Tacoma--1930-1940; Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival (1935 : Tacoma);

The float entered by the Medosweet Dairy, second place winner in Division IV, commercial entries. The float is centered around a huge bottle of milk covered with flowers. Two tones of daffodils were used to represent cream and milk. (filed with Argentum)

Floats (parades)--Tacoma--1930-1940; Parades & processions--Tacoma--1930-1940; Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival (1935 : Tacoma); Medosweet Dairies, Inc. (Tacoma);

Merrill Almanac's entry in the 1935 Daffodil Parade. Two people pose by a decorated basket with "Merrill Almanac" on its side by the Seymour Conservatory in Wright Park. (filed with Argentum)

Floats (parades)--Tacoma--1930-1940; Parades & processions--Tacoma--1930-1940; Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival (1935 : Tacoma); Seymour Conservatory (Tacoma); Wright Park (Tacoma); Greenhouses--Tacoma--1930-1940;

Flower bedecked automobile used as Tacoma Seed Company float in the 1935 Daffodil Parade, parked in front of the Seymour Conservatory at Wright's Park. Sign on float reads "Tacoma Seed Co. headquarters for Von Zonnevelt Farm Bulbs."

Floats (Parades)--Tacoma--1930-1940; Parades & processions--Tacoma--1930-1940; Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival (1935 : Tacoma); Seymour Conservatory (Tacoma); Wright Park (Tacoma); Greenhouses--Tacoma--1930-1940;

A Sumner-Orting-Fairfax-Tacoma bus festooned with daffodils; the Constanti entry in the 1935 Daffodil Parade. The floats lined up on Jefferson Avenue, preparing for the parade on Broadway and Pacific Ave.

Floats (parades)--Tacoma--1930-1940; Parades & processions--Tacoma--1930-1940; Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival (1935 : Tacoma);

Aerial view of 1952 Daffodil Parade as it proceeds down Pacific Avenue. The 15 mile long parade wound its way down Pacific Ave. from 9th to 19th. A Marine Corps color guard led the parade, followed by the float bearing Queen Eva Beattie and her princesses, royally escorted by the Rosarians of Portland, Oregon. Following the City Light float bearing the Queen were 70 floats and decorated cars, 21 bands, 28 marching units and three mounted groups. (TNT 4-6-1952, pg. 1)

Celebrations--Tacoma; Festivals--Tacoma; Parades & Processions--Tacoma--1950-1960; Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival (1952 : Tacoma); Drill teams; Marching bands; Floats (parades)--Tacoma--1950-1960; Aerial photographs;

Aerial view of 1952 Daffodil Parade as it proceeds down Pacific Avenue. The day of the parade dawned clear and sunny, prompting 200,000 Tacomans to line the parade route. People stood 10 deep at prime viewing spots, with others watching from windows, awnings, hanging from fire escapes and perching on roofs.

Celebrations--Tacoma; Festivals--Tacoma; Parades & Processions--Tacoma--1950-1960; Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival (1952 : Tacoma); Drill teams; Marching bands; Floats (parades)--Tacoma--1950-1960; Aerial photographs;

A man carefully dabs on paint on the "log" cabin as Lincoln Electric prepares its float for the 1953 Daffodil parade. A giant penny is located on one end of the float with Lincoln's head in silhouette; Lincoln Electric also used a silhouette of Lincoln on its building at South 38th and Park. Photograph ordered by Tony Ricono.

Floats (Parades)--Tacoma--1950-1960; Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival (1953 : Tacoma); Lincoln Electric (Tacoma); Silhouettes;

The 1936 Daffodil court is getting out of their vehicle at the base of the reviewing stand on So. 10th Street & Pacific, a 35-feet-high, four-tiered structure covered with 200,000 daffodils. They will ascend to the first daffodil covered platform to view the parade as it passes by. The pylon was the photo opportunity of the third annual Daffodil Festival. The old bank building at 10th and Pacific, overhead streetcar wires, and the ruins of The Tacoma Hotel punctuate the background. (T. Times 4/20/1936, pg. 3)

Queen Margaret I, Margaret Thomas of Sumner, and her four attendants pose on their Daffodil Parade float on March 23, 1935. The attendants are, left to right, Irma Jane Janig, Sumner; Billie Barto, Puyallup; Olive Chervenka, Sumner; and Evelyn Mellinger of Tacoma. The 1935 parade was the second annual.

ca. 1936. This float was entered by the city of Puyallup in the Daffodil Parade in the mid to late 1930s. Daffodils and crepe paper streamers cover the truck where uniformed Girl Scouts ride on the bed. The girls hold an American flag and a second flag, possibly the Washington state flag.

Float sponsored by the City of Tacoma in the 1936 Daffodil Parade, symbolizing the city's dominance in public utilities. In the forefront are three rearing horses pulling a large wheel. A large dynamo is in the back, an emblem of the power of the hydroelectric plants. (TDL 4/19/1936, pg. 1)

Weda Claire Dykeman smiles from inside a daffodil during the 1936 Daffodil Parade. Weda Claire is the daughter of Doug Dykeman. (T. Times 4/20/1936, pg. 3)

On this float in the 1936 Daffodil Parade, the flower vase has tipped over, sending the daffodils and the smiling girls they hold to the ground. Peeking around the edge of her flower is Mary Frances Cavanaugh, left, and in the other blossom is Weda Claire Dykeman. Mary Frances is the daughter of Cecil Cavanaugh, of Cavanaugh Lumber Co., and Weda Claire is the daughter of Doug Dykeman. (T. Times 4/20/1936, pg. 3)

Daffodil Parade float entry by KMO radio, a floral representation of a microphone with the call letters KMO. The float was probably an entry in the 1936 parade. Several patches of daffodils in the outer ring of the microphone are missing showing the chicken wire base.

ca. 1935. The Rotary Club, almost always represented in the Daffodil Parade, entered this flower covered car in one of the early parades, most likely 1935. The automobile has so many flowers that even the wheels are covered with their own bouquets.

This float in the 1936 Daffodil parade carries the K Street emblem mounted on an axis and describing the K Street business sector as the "Hub of Activity." The float is offered by the K Street Business Mens' Association The floral tribute is built on the bed of a large truck. (T. Times 4/20/1936, pg. 3)

ca. 1938. This float was entered by the city of Sumner in a mid to late 1930's Daffodil Parade. The driver's head can be seen at the center of the float. In the back, two girls in Dutch costumes ride in chairs.

Two young girls with bouquets of daffodils ride atop the Rotary Club of Tacoma's float in the 1940 Daffodil Parade. The focus point of the Rotary Club float is the gigantic globe, with the continents marked out with daffodils. The floats are lined up in a staging area prior to the parade. See Series D9587 image 19 for a Richards Studio photograph taken at almost the same exact time. TPL-2941

Sumner's entry in the 1940 Daffodil Parade was this floral cross section of a daffodil. Each daffodil petal is occupied by a girl. The girls wear white dresses. The float appears to be lined up in a staging area. One can only wonder if there were also five girls on the other side of the float, or if this float could only be fully appreciated from one side. The Tacoma Times calls the float a giant paddle wheel, a-la a Mississippi riverboat, with a girl in each paddle. See D9587 image 4 for another view of the float. (T. Times 3/30/1940, pg. 1)

A young rider, dressed in chaps and a flower decorated hat, posed on a daffodil festooned horse ready to ride in the first annual Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival parade on March 17, 1934. The main viewing area was 11th & Pacific, where the parade passed with daffodil bedecked autos, busses, bicycles, carts and horses, as well as marching bands and drill teams. Still reeling from the Great Depression, business and club entries in the first parade were modest when compared to later years.

Margaret Thomas, crowned Queen Margaret I of the 1935 Greater Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival, smiles serenely over her bouquet of daffodils. The twenty three year old from Sumner was the first Queen chosen in an actual contest. Queen Margaret was selected from a field of ten candidates. The very first Festival Queen, Mrs. Elizabeth Lee Wooten, was selected by a committee without a contest. Until the mid-1950s, the Queen was always from Sumner or Puyallup, the birthplaces of the daffodil industry.

Billye Fairchild, Frankie Cowan and Betty Brumbaugh pose in flowered spring gowns and picture hats in a field of yellow daffodils advertising the first Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival in March of 1934. The brainchild of Tacoman Lee Merrill, the first Festival had a tight budget of $600 and not many supporters. The parade, then called the procession, took place on March 17,1934. It began at Union Station and wound its way through downtown Tacoma, followed by Puyallup, Sumner & Orting. Area businesses and clubs, still recovering from the Great Depression, contributed decorated horses, bicycles, busses, autos and a few floats plus marching bands and drill units. The Queen, Elizabeth Lee Wooten, was selected a few days prior to the Festival as she walked down a city street in Puyallup. TPL-3148

ca. 1935. This float was entered in one of the very early Daffodil Festival parades, most likely 1935. A grass covered car is topped by a daffodil basket in which sit two charming cherubs. The two children are dressed formally, he in top hat and tails and she in a white bonnet. The floats at this time period were very simple; usually flower covered cars or mounted on the flat beds of small trucks.

The Rotary Club, a perennial entrant in the Daffodil Parade, entered this flower bedecked emblem of Rotary International in the 1936 parade. The word "Service" is emblazoned on the side of the float.

This daffodil decorated horse and driver were one of the entries in the first Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival parade in 1934. The two wheeled cart was advertising Will Rogers in the motion picture "David Harem" playing at the Roxy Theater. Most of the entries in the first parade were modest when compared to later years. The parade began at Union Station, travelled through downtown Tacoma then on to Puyallup, Sumner and Orting.

An enthusiastic crowd watched in awe as the first Daffodil Parade rolled by in 1934. The parade, designed to use the leftover daffodil blooms that were formerly thrown away when the bulb was harvested, has become a much anticipated annual feature of the spring festival. There has been a parade every year since 1934, with the exception of the war years of 1943, 1944 and 1945. In 1934, the parade consisted of decorated horses, bicycles, flower covered automobiles and a few floats. It started at Union Station and continued uptown. It later travelled to Puyallup, Sumner and Orting. In this photograph, two flower bedecked automobiles pass by delighted spectators.