The Shadowy Resort on the Reservation
Neighbors allege a dance hall and illicit bar near Bay Street are a hub for vice, liquor sales to minors, and persistent noise, while city officials look the other way.
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.
Residents on the reservation near the vicinity of Twenty-eighth and Bay streets claim that life has been made unbearable by the nightly orgies at the resort run by Christopher Kopp. This place, located at the intersection of Twenty-eighth and Bay streets, consists of a combination dance hall, bowling alley, and a 'blind tiger.' Every evening, especially on weekends, the neighborhood is made hideous by ribald songs and the yelling and cursing of those who patronize the resort. When the crowd gets hilarious, revolver shots add to the din, and many residents say they are afraid to venture out after dark. Liquor is dispensed freely by the bottle in a shack near the road, but a 'pass-word' is required to buy booze by the glass. It is alleged that beer is bottled on the premises in a shack sitting directly in the middle of the alley between Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth streets. Neighbors report that children under 15 are regular patrons, often leaving the premises barely able to walk. Despite repeated appeals to county commissioners and the prosecuting attorney, citizens claim no action has been taken.
“When the crowd gets real hilarious, revolver shots add to the din, and many people in the neighborhood allege that they are afraid to venture out of the house after dark.”
The tension between residential stability and unregulated nightlife in these industrial-adjacent corridors remains a recurring theme in Tacoma’s civic history. The 'reservation' area described once bordered the Puyallup tribal lands, and the conflict over who holds jurisdiction—and who profits from vice—is a struggle that still echoes in modern debates over zoning and neighborhood safety.
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