Tacoma has a roster of historic buildings that serve as reminders of its beginnings and create a sense of place and heritage. However, many buildings from the City of Destiny’s beginnings are just footnotes after they fell over time. Some buildings among them are still the focus of conversations long after disappearing from the landscape. And oddly enough, many of the top landmark buildings in Tacoma lost to history went down in flames.
Tacoma Hotel
Chief among the most-talked-about, gone-but-not-forgotten building that no longer exists is the once-grand Tacoma Hotel, which once hosted the top, well-to-do tourists to the city after it opened for business in 1884 before it burned to the ground in 1935. Maybe it is remembered because of its grandeur or the devastating fire that sealed its fate, but few discussions about local landmarks, past and present, lack stories and antidotes about the lost gem.
Tacoma Theatre
Another notable landmark that also went up in flames was the Tacoma Theatre. What, in 1890, was dubbed “Finest Temple on the Coast” served as a promotional building for the relatively new city. It was the place to see the best opera and vaudeville shows the country had to offer.
“It is difficult to overstate the importance of the Tacoma Theatre to the city during the first decades of its existence,” local music historian Kim Davenport wrote in her HistoryLink article on the subject. “After its opening in 1890, it would be another 28 years before the Pantages and Rialto theaters – neighbors on either side of the Tacoma – were built in 1918, and again another nine before the Temple Theater opened several blocks north in 1927. Several theaters were built in Seattle in this same era, but none had the staging capabilities of the Tacoma.”
The passage of time prompted a shift from the space being a 1,200-seat, live stage to a movie theater. The theater, which sat at the corner of Ninth and Broadway, became the Music Box movie theater.
It was under this name that it became part of history when an electrical fire broke out in one of the upper floors during a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” in 1963. Everyone in the building got out without injury, and many of them then hung around on the sidewalks nearby to watch the historic theater burn beyond repair.
Top of the Ocean
Rounding out the list of often-talked-about historic landmarks, flames claimed was the Top of the Ocean, a cruise-liner-themed restaurant along Tacoma’s waterfront. It served as a restaurant for birthday celebrations, Sunday brunches, and Saturday-night dancing for 30 years until an arsonist torched it in 1977. A jury later convicted David Levage of the crime.
The case would later get mentioned in the 1978 racketeering trial of then-Sheriff George Janovich and the “Enterprise” extortion group. Although Levage was charged along with a roster of others in the scheme, he was the only one found not guilty once the matter went to trial, which would be a hollow victory for him since he was already serving a 20-year prison stint.
The site of the Top of the Ocean sat vacant for 20 years after estimates to rebuild it topped $1 million. Metro Parks Tacoma later installed a boardwalk pier at the site, and the Tacoma Historical Society helped fund a monument to commemorate the site.
Other Tacoma Fires
More recent fires to claim local landmarks include the 98-year-old Gault Middle School, which suffered an apparent arson fire in January 2024 after being vacant for five years.
Additionally, the former, and also vacant, 1913-built Tacoma Steam Boiler Works along Dock Street burned beyond repair during the summer of 2024. It was the last remaining warehouse of its type along the waterfront. Investigators also believe arson was the cause, particularly since other fires have been reported at nearby buildings.
If history was any indication of the future, these will not be the last landmarks flames will claim. But we can hope.
