A Monument for Tacoma’s Future
After securing a major land grant from the Northern Pacific Railroad, Tacoma’s ambitious plan for a massive high school athletic stadium is finally moving toward construction.
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.
Tacoma will get the stadium. The Northern Pacific has granted the required land, the Oregon & Washington railway has dropped $1,000 into the fund, and the great athletic amphitheater for the high school will be started immediately. Secretary Lister of the school board received a letter from Thomas Cooper, land commissioner of the Northern Pacific, granting the school board a strip of land 100 feet wide and 400 feet long. The railway company values the donation at $100,000. With this grant, the project can be completed for about $86,000. The stadium will be 430 feet long, featuring ample room for baseball, football, and tennis, as well as a fine one-fifth mile track.
“Tacoma will get the stadium.”
This 1909 construction push resulted in the iconic Stadium High School bowl, which remains a central landmark of Tacoma. It illustrates the era's 'Booster' spirit, where private railroad monopolies and city boosters worked in tandem to build permanent civic infrastructure.
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