Stadium High School - Tahoma Yearbook (Tacoma, WA)

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10 THE TAHOMA , Stadium ll'lliiglh Sfolhooll It was to be the best hotel in the West, for not only was a great deal of money, S750,000, to be spent in its completion, but it was to be erected in the most beautiful and scenic sur- roundings of all. It was to be bui'lt high on a cliff that over- looks the picturesque Puget Sound, with its numerous inlets and islands. In the background, which seemed just across the bay, to the west could be plainly seen the Alp-like Glympics, while to the southwest the high snowcovered peak, Mount Tacoma, jutted up from the Cascade range. It was named by the In- dians The Mountain That Was God because of its height and stateliness. Such were the wonderful prospects that confronted the Ta- coma Land Company and the Northern Pacific Railway officials, builders of that never-completed tourist hotel. Today the same scenes are viewed daily by the students of Stadium High School, for it is on this same site that the high school stands. 9 The hotel was begun in 1891 with plans for a seven-story structure. Work on the new building went on with great rapidity until the depression of 1893-94 was felt, then it began to slow up until in the year 1895 all action on erection of the building came to an end. The contractors and owners could not collect enough money to pay the workmen. So all the windows and openings were boarded up, the lumber and steel girders were put

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THE TAHOMA

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THE TAHOMA ll in the basement under cover, and the building was abandoned for the next four years. On October 11, 1898, at 7:15 p. rn. a mysterious fire broke out in the east wing of the building, and as at that time no watchman was kept the fire was far beyond control by the time a stream of water could be brought into play. People from miles around were attracted by the glare and the sparks from the flames. Firemen did everything possible to save the building but the entire inside of the unfinished hotel was burned. The only parts that remained were the strongly reinforced brick walls and six large boilers that had been stored in the west wing base- ment three floors underground. The total loss was estimated at S200,000, as the building was not insured. It was popularly believed tha.t the building was purposely set on fire. Finally, because public pride and need of a new high school, the school board, on recommendation of Architect Frederick Heath, bought the ruins of the castle-like hotel, with the sur- rounding nine acres of ground, for 334,500 on February 26, 1903. Work began immediately as at that time the old Tacoma High School was overcrowded with students. The architect changed the plans so that the building would look as if it had been originally planned for a high school, the architecture being of the French Renaissance type. So fast was the work rushed that the graduating Class of 1906 of the Tacoma High School was able to hold its graduating exercises in June in the just-completed auditorium. In Sep- tember of the same year when school opened everyone, both pupils and citizens of Tacoma, came to view the wonderful awe-inspir- ing modern high school, which had such gigantic boilers and air- breathing walls to take care of the ventilation. For days peo- ple thronged the building to view it. So well was this building constructed that even now, 20 years later, it is up-to-date in all respects. The total cost of the building at the time of its com- pletion amounted to S300,788.1S. It has been much changed and improved as the years have gone by.