Preserving the Past at Old Fort Sales
Local residents rally to save and restore a historic site south of Tacoma where the first white child in the region was born.
Old Fort Sales, where the first white baby was born in the Northwest, a few miles south of Tacoma, is to be preserved. The site is on property owned by Jesse Thomas, and he has agreed to give sufficient land for the conversion of the place into a park. The old building erected in 1852, however, is falling down, and will have to be repaired at once. Mr. Stephenson, who lives near the place, has undertaken to raise money enough by popular subscription to repair the place and fix it up, and it is expected to thus preserve an old historic landmark and give to the people another park.
“It is expected to thus preserve an old historic landmark and give to the people another park.”
The effort to turn a crumbling historical site into a public park mirrors the perennial tension between property ownership and the desire to preserve local heritage. This story reflects a moment where the community took direct action to save a piece of its own history before it disappeared.
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