The Fight for a Free Public Museum
Curator W. H. Gilstrap advocates for placing the Ferry Museum in Wright Park to ensure public access to Tacoma's history.
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Put the Ferry Museum and Historical society building in Wright park and use the money that it would cost to buy a site for an endowment fund to pay the annual expenses of maintenance, and then throw the entire building open to the people for free admission; is the plan of Curator W. H. Gilstrap of the museum. 'We can have one of the four largest museums in the United States here in less than ten years if a little encouragement is given the thing now, and we will have something that will make Tacoma talked about all over the world,' said Mr. Gilstrap. The Pennsylvania society last night adopted resolutions calling on the park board to rescind its former action and to grant the museum the site asked for in the corner of Wright park.
“We can have one of the four largest museums in the United States here in less than ten years if a little encouragement is given the thing now.”
The placement of cultural institutions within public parks remains a contentious point of civic identity in Tacoma, balancing historical preservation against park usage and the public's right to space.
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