The City of Destiny Lights Up for the Fair
Tacoma plans a massive electrical display of double arches across Pacific Avenue to welcome visitors for the upcoming A.-V.-P. fair.
Tacoma will be in a blaze of light this summer when the visitors come to the A.-V.-P. fair. H. J. McGregor, chairman of the decorating committee, presented plans for municipal decorating which were adopted for the publicity campaign at a cost of $2,000, with the city providing the power. The decorations will consist of double arches at all street intersections on Pacific Avenue from the Flyer dock to Twenty-fourth Street, and on C Street from Seventh to Seventeenth. Each arch will be surmounted by an arc lamp, with 146 incandescent bulbs lining the ribs of each arch. The project is designed to make the street look like a great lighted tunnel.
“It will make the whole street look like a great lighted tunnel.”
Early 20th-century civic boosterism relied heavily on 'lighting up' to project progress and modernity. Today, Tacoma continues to use infrastructure and public art to define its identity, though the scale of temporary decorative arches has been replaced by more permanent revitalization efforts along these same corridors.
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