ca. 1931. Dennison & Company, chicken canners, Fern Hill. Belle and Lee Dennison founders of food line. This circa 1931 photograph depicts five women working at an assembly line of glass jars full of Dennison chicken.

ca. 1931. Parkland Methodist Episcopal Church, 200 Wheeler St., Parkland. This Parkland area church was built in 1900 and remodeled in 1924. Bowen # CHU-011

ca. 1931. Calvary Presbyterian Church, 3516 So. D St., Tacoma. The church was built in 1886 and moved a few blocks to this location in 1909. Bowen # CHU-012

ca. 1931. Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, 5415 So. Lawrence St., Tacoma. Bowen #CHU-015

ca. 1931. First Church of Christ, Scientist, 902 Division Ave., Tacoma. Built in 1911, the Greek-influenced edifice remains at its original location directly across Wright Park. It was designed by local architect Frederick Heath. Bowen # CHU-024

ca. 1931. Talmud Torah Synagogue, 901 So. 4th, Tacoma. Architects Hill & Mock designed this "Romanesque Italian Renaissance" structure, which was constructed in 1925. It was renamed Sinai Temple in 1947. In 1960, Talmud Torah merged with the reformists at Temple Beth Israel. Rabbi Richard Rosenthal was elected to lead the combined congregations. They built a new synagogue, Temple Beth El, at 5975 So. 12th St. Talmud Torah was sold in 1968 to the Tacoma Blood Bank. It was later demolished and its site used as a parking lot for Tacoma General Hospital. Bowen # CHU-025

ca. 1931. 6th Avenue Baptist Church, 2520 Sixth Avenue, Tacoma. This Gothic structure was built in 1924 from a design by Heath, Gove & Bell, architects. It was constructed from Walker Cut Stone donated by Robert Walker. The formal dedication was held on April 12, 1925. Bowen #CHU- 032

ca. 1931. St. Joseph's Church, 602 So. 34th St. Tacoma. This church was designed by C. Frank Mahon, architect, and built by congregation members. It was dedicated April 19, 1912 as St. Joseph's Slovak Catholic Church. Bowen #CHU-037

ca. 1931. First German Baptist Church, 2005 So. J St., Tacoma. The church was constructed in 1907 and originally named the First German Baptist. In the 40's, it became Calvary Baptist and in 1957, St. John Missionary Baptist Church. It has since been demolished. Bowen # CHU-038

ca. 1931. Central Methodist Church, 1953 So. I St., Tacoma. The church was dedicated on January 8, 1922 and stood at So. I and 21st St. The structure also housed Goodwill Industries. It has since been demolished. Bowen #CHU-045

ca. 1931. Bethany Presbyterian Church, 4420 No. 41st St., Tacoma. This semi-Colonial structure replaced a previous Bethany Presbyterian at this location. It was designed by the architectural firm of Heath, Gove & Bell. The structure had a brick veneer and stained glass windows from the Allen C. Mason mansion. Rev. Robert Asa Smith was the preacher at the time of construction. Bowen #CHU-047

ca. 1931. Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 702 E. Harrison St., Tacoma. The church was built in 1906 for the First Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church. It was dedicated in 1907 as the Bethlehem Norwegian Lutheran Church, later shortened to Bethlehem Lutheran. Bowen #CHU-049

ca. 1931. Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1601 So. L St., Tacoma. The church was built in 1908 as the German Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church. The $9000 structure was designed by H. Crosley, architect. It much later became the Miles Memorial CME Church. It was demolished in 2004. Bowen #CHU-051

ca. 1931. Bethlehem Baptist Church, 1723 So. I St., Tacoma (Identification at bottom of negative is incorrect.) The church was built in 1922 by Baptists of color to replace an older structure. The pictured church burned in 1959 and was itself replaced by a new building. Bowen # CHU-030

ca. 1931. RKO Orpheum Theater, 901 Broadway. Six ushers posed in front of the movie palace dressed as jockeys. Banners on their chests say "Starting Monday, Sweepstakes." "Sweepstakes" was a 1931 RKO Pathe racetrack movie about a jockey and his horse, starring Eddie Quillan, James Gleason, Marion Nixon and Lew Cody. The playbill advertisement in the background refers to the Burns & Allen comedy act "Dizzy."

ca. 1931. Jack Estes, a photographer for the commercial photography studio McIntire & Davenport, 315 1/2 S. 9th, takes a picture of an unidentified man posing behind a political cartoon. The cartoon shows Herbert Hoover, and the G.O.P. "On the Skid Road".

ca. 1931. Broadway businesses. This is how one side of Broadway appeared circa 1931. The Warburton Building at 1101-03 (far left) was the first concrete building erected in Tacoma. It housed the French Drug Co. on the lower level and the E.R. Parker Painless Dentists above. At the near right was the equally tall Montgomery Ward & Co. store, in the New York Building (1117-19), the former home of the Horgan-Parker and Fair Department Stores. Between the two tall structures were smaller businesses including the Broadway Electric Co. and Kimball's Gun Store.

Farewell banquet for Harry A. Lehnhardt, Union Club, Jan. 14, 1931, given by the Tacoma Agency Sales Force. 1953 copy of a customer's print.

Union Club (Tacoma); Clubs--Tacoma--1930-1940; Lehnhardt, Harry A.;

In February of 1931, Lucille Dyment, 6, and her sister Mardelle, 8, offered food items to Harry D. Hurlbut, president of the 4L Band, in exchange for admission to the concert at the Gault Intermediate School auditorium. The girls were the grandchildren of City Commissioner Dyer Dyment. More than 1 and one half tons of food were collected at this event sponsored by the McKinley Hill Improvement Club. This was the first year that the 36 piece volunteer band had performed relief concerts, and this was the 12th concert so far. Over 21,000 pounds of food had been collected in all for the needy and unemployed. The concerts were performed in halls all across the city and the food was distributed in the community where the concert took place. (TNT 2/25/1931, pg. 1) TPL-9968

In February of 1931, elderly Richard Henry "Jimmy" Davis demonstrated how he and the neighborhood boys played marbles outside the frame home of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Ill. The future President, depending on his mood, would either join the boys in the game or shoo them away, saying that they were making too much noise. Mr. Davis, who in 1931 was well past 80, lived in the Lutheran Compass Mission. He couldn't remember much about how he came to live there. He worked in the mines from the age of 11 and three cave-ins have robbed him of much of his memory. As a young man, he was active in the labor movement and for two years travelled and worked with Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, the "Miners Angel." The pair helped with organizing what would become the United Mine Workers. (TNT 2/11/1931, pg. 1) BGN-284 TPL-9934

Miss Betty Gaston, with some creative photographic additions, was the sweetheart of the Tacoma News Tribune's 1931 Valentines Day edition. An unusually warm February, a balmy 60 degrees on the 14th, induced the photographer to enhance the image with an outdoors motif. The swing hung from a budding tree and Miss Gaston's legs protruded from a large heart that covered most of her body. Her "rompers" showed prominently and were pointed out as spring wear. Her hair and lips were darkened for contrast. (TNT 2/14/1931, pg. 1)

In the depths of the Great Depression, about 1,000 men and women waged a peaceful orderly march on City Hall in late February of 1931 to focus attention on immediate unemployment relief. Members of the Unemployed Council, the Trade Unity League and the Communist Party requested: 1) unemployment insurance at $15 per week with $5 extra per dependent; 2) an immediate relief fund of $1 million generated by reducing city officials' salaries; 3) non-ejection of unemployed not able to pay house rent; 4) free use of civic auditoriums for meetings of the unemployed and 5) full payment of war bonus. Mayor M.G. Tennent met with twelve chosen marchers to express his and the city council's concern but stated that their powers were limited. He did state that a $41,000 Sheridan Avenue project was approved that morning so that more men could be employed through city construction. After listening to a program of addresses by their leaders, the large crowd dispersed after about three hours. (TDL 2/26/1931, p.4-article). Bowen 03-914.

House at 417 No. E St., Tacoma. Photograph was taken for a real estate ad and ordered by R.G. Walker & Co., realtors, in February of 1931. House was vacant at the time. The Georgian period Colonial home was built in 1906 for George Lewis Gower. It was designed by the architectural firm of Russell and Babcock. After Gower's death, the home was purchased in 1920 by Leonard Howarth. After the death of Mr. Howarth, the home was sold by Janie M. Rice, the Howarth housekeeper, to Mrs. Anita Thorne Corse, the daughter of Chester Thorne. After her marriage to General David Stone, the couple relocated to the family home Thornewood. She sold this Colonial in 1935 to J.P. Weyerhaeuser, Jr. In 1948, it was remodeled into apartments.

Gower, George Lewis--Homes & haunts; Howarth, Leonard--Homes & haunts; Houses--Tacoma;

Dennison's Chili, found in markets today, was first made in a Tacoma plant located in Fern Hill. The factory opened in 1925, when they moved to Fern Hill. Belle Dennison started canning chicken in her kitchen in 1915. Friends raved about the product and soon her husband Lee was selling it to local stores. When this photograph was taken in 1931, 15 women from the Fern Hill neighborhood worked at Dennison & Company. Meat from 45,000 chickens, purchased at nearby ranches and packed in glass jars, was sold in stores from Alaska to the border of Mexico. The product line was expanded in the 1930s and sold about 1938 when the company moved to Seattle. (TDL, 3/29/1931, p. 4A).

On March 10th, 1931, at around 6:30p.m., the sheet iron canopy at the Broadway Theater, 902-14 Broadway, came crashing down from the marquee to the pavement. The metal canopy over the theater entrance at So. 9th and Court C was in the process of having new electric lights installed. The weight of the lights and the workmen was just too much for the metal canopy. Luckily no one was hurt. (TNT 3/11/1931, pg. 1; TDL 3/11/1931 p.1)

Broadway Theater (Tacoma); Motion Picture Theaters--Tacoma--1930-1940; Building failures;

This was the Market Street side of the St. Helens Clinic building on a rainy March 10, 1931. The towering Medical Arts Building (at right) can be seen dimly in the fog. The building housing the St. Helens Clinic formerly had been the Hyson Apartments. It was remodeled in late 1919 as a medical building. Later in the 1930s the triangular site reverted back to apartments. It was damaged by fire in May of 1966 and demolished in April of the following year. BU-13331

St. Helens Clinic (Tacoma); Clinics--Tacoma--1930-1940; Medical Arts Building (Tacoma); Office buildings--Tacoma--1930-1940;

Saint Helens side of the St. Helens Clinic building in 1931. The triangular shaped building had formerly been the Hyson Apartments when constructed about 1903. It was remodeled in late 1919 as the St. Helens Clinic with additional businesses on the first floor. Later in the 1930s the building was remodeled again into apartments. As the Berk Apartments, it would be damaged by fire in May of 1966 and demolished in April of 1967. BU-13330

St. Helens Clinic (Tacoma); Clinics--Tacoma--1930-1940;

The Temple of Justice was the first campus building completed on the Washington State Capitol grounds in 1920. Pierce County's quarries contributed the Wilkeson sandstone used in its construction. This view of the grand edifice was taken in March of 1931. It is home to the State Supreme Court and the State Law Library. G72.1-033

Temple of Justice (Olympia);

Inside hanger at Tacoma Field. Four airplanes are clearly visible, a single-wing tri-motor passenger plane and three bi-planes. Two of the bi-planes are marked Bennett Air Transportation Inc. Photograph was taken in March of 1931.

Airplanes--Lakewood--1930-1940; Bennett Air Transportation Inc. (Lakewood); Tacoma Field (Lakewood);