Tacoma’s Culture Clash
A new city ordinance forbidding saloons near churches threatens the future of Tacoma’s beloved German theater and social club.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The German population of Tacoma is in trouble. The amusement and social center of this element is the Germania theater, which has under the same roof several rooms used as club and society quarters, to say nothing of the gymnasium of the local Turn Verein. The building also has a beer hall, which is one of the best-regulated places of resort in the city. The Teutons stroll in there of an afternoon with their families and enjoy beer and reading the German papers. A new city ordinance is at the bottom of all the trouble. This provides that no saloon shall be situated within 300 feet of a church, and the Central Christian church is situated just across the street. The difficulty was encountered when the time came to renew the license, and though the city council has refused to renew, the German fraternity has not given up its efforts.
“The Teutons stroll in there of an afternoon with their families and enjoy beer and reading the German papers.”
This story highlights the late 19th-century 'Temperance' movement, which often targeted immigrant cultural spaces like the German Turn Verein. It captures the tension between maintaining ethnic communal spaces and the growing reach of municipal moral regulation.
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