Man working on a fuse box attached to a wall filled with various sized fuse boxes at the new mill work plant in Mountlake Terrace. Ordered by Phares Advertising Agency, Seattle.

Building materials industry--Mountlake Terrace; Electrical apparatus;

A commercial building that would have been called a strip-mall in the 1980's has been built of brick and concrete block. This view shows three store fronts. The tall brick pillar holds a sign advertising a restaurant with, "Good Food Always". Ordered by the Holroyd Company.

Concrete products industry--Tacoma; Holroyd Co. (Tacoma); Building materials;

A retail facility built with concrete block at the rear and brick along the front houses Aron's In & Out Restaurant and Kraus & Swanson's Business Investments. Aron's lists tacos, tamales, hot dogs, hamburgers and pop corn to go. Ordered by Holroyd Company.

Concrete products industry--Tacoma; Holroyd Co. (Tacoma); Building materials; Concrete--Tacoma--1950-1960; Aron's In & Out (Tacoma);

A retail facility has been built using concrete block. The roof slants from the front to the back of the building and the display window at the front slopes outwards from the floor level. An FTD emblem is affixed to the front door. An awning projects from the far wall protecting small plants. Ordered by Holroyd Company.

Concrete products industry--Tacoma; Holroyd Co. (Tacoma); Building materials; Concrete--Tacoma--1950-1960; Florist shops--Tacoma;

A view of the front of Gene's Food Center owned by Gene W. Marsh. The one-story building has been built of concrete blocks. Ordered by the Holroyd Company.

Concrete products industry--Tacoma; Holroyd Co. (Tacoma); Building materials; Gene's Food Center (Tacoma); Grocery stores--Tacoma--1950-1960;

A one-story, single-family residence with a day-light basement has been built with concrete blocks below and bricks in decorative patterns above. Poured concrete steps lead to the front entrance at the middle of the home and on the left side. A garage, possibly for two cars, can be seen on the right. Ordered by the Holroyd Company.

Concrete products industry--Tacoma; Holroyd Co. (Tacoma); Building materials; Houses--Tacoma--1950-1960;

This new house has been built using concrete blocks and shows the versatility of the product in design. The roof of the two longer sides of the building slope inward rather than downward from an elevated hip. The windows on the shorter sides slant at the top in the same configuration as the roof. Ordered by the Holroyd Company.

Concrete products industry--Tacoma; Holroyd Co. (Tacoma); Building materials; Houses--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Co. of Washington; yard employees' Christmas party. The lone female at this gathering laughs out loud while the man behind her seems to be offering to help her with her soup. The Pennsalt plant manufactured chemicals used in industrial processing, sanitation and also insect irradication. The company later changed its name to Penwalt.

Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Co. of Washington (Tacoma)--Employees; Chemical industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Factories--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Seven Up Bottling Co. A breakfast for twenty featuring the bubbling soda. 7UP's slogan at this time was "You like it, it likes you." The breakfast was part of the meetings scheduled around the 37th annual convention of the Washington Bottlers of Carbonated Beverages held in Tacoma at the Winthrop Hotel. The three day run of meetings had its kickoff on Sunday, 2/7/1954, with a reception and smorgasbord at the hotel. Over 250 bottlers and their families were expected to attend. (TNT 2/7/1954)

Washington Bottlers of Carbonated Beverages (Wa.); Meetings--Tacoma--1950-1960; Carbonated beverages;

ca. 1956. Aerial view of Washington Steel Products Inc. at the intersection of 11th Street and Milwaukee Way. The company was the only manufacturer of builders' hardware in the Pacific Northwest. This plant was constructed in 1948, with additions in 1950, 1952 and a million dollar expansion in 1953. In 1956, the plant occupied 120,000 square feet and turned out more than 450 products for national and foreign markets. The company manufactured small hardware such as drawers, knobs, pulls and hinges. Also pictured on 11th Street is Blake, Moffitt and Towne at 1157 Thorne Rd. Blake, Moffitt & Towne were wholesale distributors of printing and wrapping paper and stationery and were formerly located on Jefferson Avenue. (TNT 9/3/1956)

Washington Steel Products, Inc. (Tacoma); Blake, Moffitt & Towne, Inc. (Tacoma); Paper industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Hardware;

Birchfield Boiler Inc.; interior shots of the largest boilers built on the coast. Worker seems diminutive beside the massive boilers. These two are the largest of their type ever built on the west coast. They are modern school house boilers designed and built for Yakima Junior and Senior High School. Each is 18 feet high, rated at 400 horse power and weighs 15 tons. (TNT 9/3/1956)

Boiler industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Machinery; Birchfield Boiler, Inc. (Tacoma);

E.L. Cliffe (L), plant superintendent, and Col. Edward Schmitt, commanding officer of the Army Personnel Center, Ft. Lewis, met with Pennsalt employee William Otto at the company's facilities on November 10, 1954. Col. Schmitt toured the plant in preview of industry tours for military personnel on Armed Forces Appreciation Day, November 30th. Mr. Otto shows the two men the machinery used in making corrosion-resistant molds used in the manufacture of chlorine and caustic by Pennsalt. Other companies, including Puget Sound Plywood, Brown & Haley, Heidelberg Breweries and Hooker Electrochemical, would also be offering tours for the military on Armed Forces Appreciation Day. (TNT 11-21-54, B-11)

Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Co. of Washington (Tacoma); Chemical industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Machinery; Cliffe, E.L.; Schmitt, Edward; Otto, William;

ca. 1959. Harmon Manufacturing Co. of Tacoma, in business here since 1909, built classroom furniture as well as that for the home. The company was located at 1938 Pacific Ave.This studio setup is of portable lab equipment, the answer for a school that is pressed for space. The teacher model illustrates chemical formulas on a rolling blackboard, while she rests a glass of soda on the ledge at the top. The blackboard also appears to slide open, to access storage space inside. Beside her is a portable lab table with a faucet and small sink and bunsen burner on top. There is plenty of storage space inside the cabinet for chemicals.

Furniture industry--Tacoma; F.S. Harmon Manufacturing Co. (Tacoma); Cabinets (Case furniture);

Shasta beverage operations. Shasta opened a new bottling plant in Tukwila in 1968. Two forklifts are shown on July 12, 1968, busy lifting and stacking cases of Cragmont soda. The soda, diet Orange, diet Cola and Black Cherry , came in both cans and no-deposit, no-return bottles. Photograph ordered by Meltzer, Aron & Lemen, Inc., San Francisco.

Bottling industry--Tukwila; Beverage industry--Tukwila; Carbonated beverages; Hoisting machinery;

Washington Natural Gas Co. exhibition booth. This may have been taken about the time of the annual Tacoma Home Show generally held in the spring at the University of Puget Sound Fieldhouse. A variety of gas appliances are on display, including Tappan ranges, Speed Queen washers and dryers, barbecues, hot water heaters, and indoor-outdoor lighting. Gas was touted as a viable alternative to heating oil and electricity in the Puget Sound region. Photograph ordered by Washington Natural Gas Co.

Washington Natural Gas Co. (Tacoma); Exhibit booths--Tacoma--1960-1970; Merchandise displays--Tacoma--1960-1970; Signs (Notices);

Busy interior of plant believed to be Star Iron & Steel. Assembly line setup of men and fabricated steel products. Star Iron was well known for their heavy crane construction but also made towers, power operated grapples, and parts for buildings, bridges and grandstands. Photograph ordered by Star Iron & Steel.

Industrial facilities--Tacoma--1960-1970; Star Iron & Steel Co. (Tacoma); Steel industry--Tacoma--1960-1970;

Washington Natural Gas's booth at the annual Tacoma Home Show. The large exhibition booth located in the University of Puget Sound Fieldhouse promoted the gas company's motto, "Good things happen when you're cooking with gas." Washer and dryers, stoves, indoor and outdoor lighting were all run by gas instead of electricity. Washington Natural Gas wanted consumers to "turn to natural gas" and invited show attendees to visit the Granada Model Home in Oakbrook to experience fine living with gas products. Photograph ordered by Washington Natural Gas. (TNT 3-27-67, C-11)

Washington Natural Gas Co. (Tacoma); Exhibit booths--Tacoma--1960-1970; Merchandise displays--Tacoma--1960-1970; Signs (Notices);

ca. 1888. Eight loggers pose with two large sections of logs that are sitting on a flat-bed railroad car. On the side of the railroad car are the words - W. F. McKay, Tacoma, Wash. T. One of the logs is larger in diameter then the out stretched arm of one of the loggers. Two loggers hold a long hand saw. The Puget Sound Directory for 1888 lists a William F. McKay as a logger.

Loggers; Logs; Lumber industry--Tacoma--1880-1890

ca. 1936. Walker Cut Stone Co. outcropping, Wilkeson, Washington, circa 1936. Walker Cut Stone operated a sandstone quarry in Wilkeson from 1914-1959. Sandstone was commonly used in building and paving projects. The Walker company used Wilkeson sandstone in constructing the major state Capitol buildings in Olympia. Walker Cut Stone's offices and plant were located in Tacoma at 2403 Center St. (photograph copied for TPL by Mary Randlett)

Women are pictured hard at work at their sewing machines in this undated photograph by photographer Chapin Bowen of the Shull-Day, later Day's Tailor-d, Clothing Co. They are surrounded by piles of the finished product, men's trousers. The company, founded by Frank Eugene Day in 1902, became the Northwest's largest manufacturer of trousers. The company perfected the assembly line where over 33 different types of sewing machine performed one function each, with the pants product being passed between the machines until completed. TPL-9501, BOWEN 2657

On Monday, December 2, 1940 at 7:11a.m., the Columbia Powder Co., located at Frederickson 10 miles southeast of Tacoma, was rocked by a devastating explosion as 2,000 pounds of dynamite ignited. The explosion killed four workers and reduced the two story frame mixing shed of the plant to splinters. The blast was felt for 30 miles. Luckily more workers were not on site at the time of the explosion; a crew of 65 men was due to report to work at 8 a.m. The plant was new, having been built 6 years prior, and barricades built within the plant as safety measures prevented the plant from being completely leveled. It would be after the New Year before the plant could resume operations as the mixing plant provided the raw materials for the other plant processes. Colombia was one of four powder plants in the state. (T. Times 12/2/1940, pg. 1)

Industrial facilities--Frederickson; Nitrates; Chemical industry--Frederickson; Explosions--Frederickson; Disasters--Frederickson; Columbia Powder Co. (Frederickson);

Air Reduction Sales interior of plant. In 1942 Air Reduction Sales Co. opened up a oxygen gas production plant. Oxygen gas is used in large quantities for cutting steel plates in ship building and it is also used in welding. The plant will be able to support the war effort by producing the chemical necessary for government vessels, and making it available locally. View of laborer in background.

Factories--Tacoma; Machinery; Storage tanks--Tacoma; Air Reduction Sales Co. (Tacoma);

Machinery at shipyards for Hooker Electro-chemical Company. Exterior of industrial building with sign: Material Conservation Dept. as pictured on February 18, 1946.

Industrial facilities;

Precision Machine Works is more than just a machine shop, it is a factory for designing and inventing automatic machinery. Precision Machine Works is a valuable plant helping the Northwest progress in the industrial markets. Edward Gazecki and Edwin Hofstead founded this plant in 1924. Exterior view of plant.

Industrial facilities--Tacoma; Machine shops--Tacoma; Precision Machine Works (Tacoma);

Interior of building during reconstruction of Tacoma oxygen plant, Air Reduction Sales Company. Contract #MCC2797.

Factories--Tacoma; Air Reduction Sales Co. (Tacoma);

Int. of Tacoma oxygen plant, Air Reduction Sales Co., Neg No. ARS-64

Factories--Tacoma; Air Reduction Sales Co. (Tacoma);

Pacific Carbide exterior and interior for record. The Pacific Carbide & Alloys Co. operated 24 hours a day 7 days per week. Their carbide products helped many Tacoma industries. Exterior view of plant.

Coke industry--Tacoma; Pacific Carbide & Alloys Co. (Tacoma);

Coke plant interior and exterior for Wilkeson Products. The Wilkeson Coke plant produces a high grade metallurgical coke that goes into the new carbide plant. Another by product is coal-tar. TPL-998

Coke industry--Tacoma; Wilkeson Co. (Tacoma);

Coke plant interior and exterior for Wilkeson Products. This war-sponsored new industry has suffered endless labor shortages. The plant demands full operation on a 24 hour 7 day basis. The increase in production will result in endless supplies of gas locally.

Coke industry--Tacoma; Wilkeson Co. (Tacoma);

Munday Y. Loss (at right) and an unidentified miner were photographed in March of 1944 hauling coal out of the Skookum Slope mine in Wilkeson, Washington. The Wilkeson Coal and Coke Company had re-opened the mine in March of 1942 to provide coal for the war effort. They had signed a contract with the U.S. Defense Plant Corporation to produce coal for conversion to coke, to be used in making steel. Over 75,000 tons of coal were shipped to Tacoma before the mine was once again closed on November 1944. (Identification of Mr. Loss provided by a reader)

Coke industry--Wilkeson; Coal miners--Wilkeson; Mine railroads--Wilkeson; Coal mining--Wilkeson; Wilkeson Coal & Coke Co. (Wilkeson); Loss, Munday Y.;