A Industrial Giant Rises on the Waterfront
Tacoma joins forces with a San Francisco milling titan to build a massive new facility.
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 contract for the construction of a flour mill with a daily capacity of 2,000 barrels for the Tacoma Warehouse Elevator Company of Tacoma and the Sperry Flour Mill Company of San Francisco was signed this morning. Rydstrom & Estes were awarded the contract and the plant will cost, exclusive of the site, about $175,000. Work on the new mill will be commenced at once. The building will be 90 feet wide, 140 feet long and five stories in height. One hundred men will be required to operate the plant. The new mill will be located on the waterfront between Elevator B and the Puget Sound flour mills. The new plant will be supplied with the latest improved machinery for the manufacture of flour. Crude oil will be used for fuel. J.R. Cross, superintendent of the Sperry flour mills, was in Tacoma today, and, together with A.M. Ingersoll of the Tacoma Warehouse Elevator company, closed the deal.
“One hundred men will be required to operate the plant.”
This 1904 expansion captured the height of Tacoma’s industrial development along the Thea Foss Waterway. Today, these massive grain facilities have largely been repurposed or demolished as the city shifts from heavy maritime processing to residential and recreational use.
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