PACIFIC AVE., SOUTH FROM NINTH ST.—TACOMA.
TACOMA’S NEW GRAND OPERA HOUSE.
Tacoma has hitherto lacked one most essential feature of a city—an opera house—and for this reason has been often denied the pleasure of listening to some of the great dramatic stars who have visited the coast. It will not be long before this will be remedied, as the most elegant opera house north of San Francisco is now in course of erection. Several of the public spirited citizens of this place recently organized the Tacoma Opera House Company, with a capital stock of $100,000.00, for the purpose of building an opera house such as the growing needs of the city require. Plans were drawn for an elegant building to cost $75,000.00, and this is now in course of construction on the corner of Ninth and C streets. The first story is of stone and the remainder of brick and terra cotta. It will have accommodations for several stores on the ground floor, and for a number of offices up stairs, and will be completed early in the spring of 1889. In all its appointments it will be elegant, and will have a seating capacity of twelve hundred. The stage settings, dressing rooms, mechanical appliances and all the accessories of a theater will be of the best pattern, and the opera chairs of the latest design. From the engraving of the exterior given on the opposite page, it will be seen that this structure will be one of the most imposing and ornamental architectural features of the city. It is located convenient to the hotels, the business portion of the city and the street car lines. With such an opera house as this, and with a population of twenty thousand people to give them patronage, the best attractions in the United States will be drawn to Tacoma as one of the regular “show towns” of the grand transcontinental circuit.
TACOMA THEATRE.
HOTELS OF THE TERMINAL CITY.
Tourists unhesitatingly declare that in this city they find the only really adequate and enjoyable hotel accommodations to be had on the Pacific coast north of San Francisco, and to this one fact is due much of the popularity of the city spread abroad by those who have enjoyed its hospitalities. Recognizing the necessity for such an institution, the Tacoma Land Company erected in 1884 the large and handsome stone and brick hotel building shown in the engraving on the opposite page. It stands on the bluff above the water front, overlooking the bay, river, valley, foothills and mountains. From the veranda and lawn a grand landscape may be seen, the great snowy mass of Mount Tacoma standing out in bold relief against the sky. The possession of such a house of entertainment, elegantly furnished and conducted in first class style by Mr. W. D. Tyler, a most courteous and able manager, renders the city a favorite summer resort and headquarters for those who desire to spend a few weeks viewing the grand scenery of the sound. On another page is given an engraving of the new and elegant Hotel Fife, a large five-story brick structure, recently completed at a cost of $125,000.00. It contains one hundred and twenty-six rooms, and is supplied with all the modern conveniences of gas, water, electric bells, elevator, etc. Hotel Fife is most elegantly furnished, and is conducted on the European plan. Hotel Rochester, recently erected on Tacoma avenue (see engraving on another page), is a large brick edifice, four stories high, and cost $75,000.00. It occupies a commanding site, and is designed for a family hotel, all its rooms being en suite, with bath, electric light and water. It is heated by steam, and has its own electric light plant, laundry and Turkish bath. A number of smaller hotels add to the city’s accommodations for strangers.