Identity area
Type of entity
Business
Authorized form of name
Tacoma Land and Improvement Company
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- Southern Improvement Company, Tacoma Land Company
- Tacoma Land Company
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1873-1923
History
Soon after it selected Tacoma as the terminus for its western line in 1873, the Northern Pacific Railroad formed a subsidiary, the Tacoma Land Company, to develop the city and sell the town lots. It was first incorporated as the Southern Improvement Company and immediately renamed the Tacoma Land Company. The first president of the company was Charles Barstow Wright, an officer in the Northern Pacific Railroad who had been a member of the committee that selected Tacoma as the western terminus location. Fellow Northern Pacific officer Frederick Billings was vice-president, and John C. Ainsworth, owner of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, was third director. Wright, Billings, and Ainsworth invested personally in Tacoma and were involved with the early development of the city. Tacoma Land Company was reorganized in 1899 and renamed the Tacoma Land & Improvement Co. The Tacoma Land & Improvement Co. was dissolved in 1923. These records are from the estate of former Tacoma Land Company vice-president Frederick Billings, who also served as president of the Northern Pacific Railroad from 1879 to 1881.
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Internal structures/genealogy
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Relationships area
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Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
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Written by Jean Fisher, 2013