The Tide Lands Plat: A Waterfront Laid Out for Sale

The 'Tacoma Tide Lands' is the brief but expressive title given by the board of appraisers to the 600 acres of tide and shore lands in Pierce county that lie in front of and within two miles of the city of Tacoma, and that come within the provisions of the Freehold Act. Thomas W. Prosch and D. A. [name] composing the Pierce county board filed their books of plats with the state land commissioner and county auditor yesterday, as directed by law, and the lands are now for sale by the state. The upland owners will have sixty days in which to make application for their lands at the appraised value; failing to make such application, the lands will be open to the general public. The plats of these lands are drawn upon the scale of 100 feet to the inch, and at that scale they are to contain all information concerning them. The lines of the United States survey have been extended across them, and the surveys of the state are in many instances variable ways. The plats number sixteen. The first twelve blocks or tracts are those in the vicinity of Smith's point, and on the north side of the bay, opposite the city. The tide lands there were but a narrow border of about 100 feet in width. This strip was not laid out in lots, but was left in tracts corresponding to frontage with the upland subdivisions. A few other tracts, owing to their irregularity of shape and the impossibility of their division into lots, were similarly platted. The greater part of the tide lands were laid out in streets, lots and blocks as nearly systematic and uniform as possible. The north and south streets are named South Seventh, South Eleventh and South Fourteenth, and are continuations of streets of similar name in Tacoma. Each is 100 feet in width. Railroad avenue is 200 feet wide, and its center is north and south also. It passes through the harbor area of the state at a depth of 200 feet. This avenue and these streets are a mile long. There are nine east and west streets, which have Indian names, each about a mile long, extending from deep water to the government meander line and intended to be continued over the lands of the Puyallup Indians, as they from time to time may plat. The first is Sitkum avenue, 120 feet wide, half in Pierce county and half in King. Sitkum being the Chinook word for half. The next is Puyallup boulevard, 140 feet wide, a width desired by the Indians owning the adjacent uplands, and which was called Puyallup boulevard in honor of them and their home. It is said to be their intention to park this magnificent thoroughfare eight miles and make it one of the finest streets of the civilized world. Seven other streets to the southward and parallel thereto are each 100 feet wide. They are called avenues. It was thought appropriate to honor them with the names of rivers in the state. The one nearest Tacoma is called Skagit, the next the third Newaukum, the fourth Chehalis, the fifth Willapa, the sixth Cowlitz and the seventh Klickitat. The blocks are of different lengths, but generally long. One water front block has a length of 2,000 feet, one of 800 feet, one of 900 feet and five of 760 feet. The interior blocks have a uniform length of 1,343 feet. Where the rule has been deviated from the blocks are longer. A uniform width of 700 feet was adopted for the blocks, and was departed from only where the necessities of the situation required. The lots generally are 100 feet wide and 250 long. Some lots are longer and some shorter, as the necessities of the situation required, and as nearly as possible. The length, width and area of every lot appears on the plat. The tide lands of Tacoma range from $25 per acre up to $1,000, an average of $123 per acre. The surveys were under the direction of M. Stixrud, the well-known civil engineer.