The owners of a downtown building that was once home to the city’s prominent daily newspaper are expected to nominate their property to the City of Tacoma’s register of historic places later this year.
The nomination for the building, located at 711 St. Helens Ave., is currently being written by architect and historic preservationist Gerald Eysaman.
According to preliminary information compiled by Eysaman and collected in archives at the Northwest Room of the Tacoma Public Library, the building today looks much different than its original 1908 design. It was built in 1910 for the Tacoma Tribune, and was later headquarters of the Tacoma Daily Ledger and The Tacoma News Tribune. The three-story building was designed by C. Darmer, a notable architect who designed many of Tacoma’s significant heritage buildings.
As the newspaper and its publishing operations grew, so did the building. An addition was built onto the south side in 1921. In 1949, a home at the corner of South 7th Street and Saint Helens Avenue was razed, and a northern addition was built. A story in the June 23, 1949 edition of The Tacoma News Tribune notes the building addition doubled the newspaper’s plant facilities.
The building and its nearby “Ledger Square” — an expansive intersection that connected Saint Helens Avenue, Market Street, and South Seventh Street — were sites of several significant events.
According to the Washington State Historical Society, in October of 1924, baseball slugger Babe Ruth visited the Tacoma Daily Ledger before competing in a game between the Tacoma All-Stars and the Timber Leaguers. In 1926, 5,000 people jammed Ledger Square to receive updates of the World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees. And thousands regularly filled the square to learn the latest returns of big-name boxing bouts.
The newspaper and publishing company eventually moved its headquarters to the 1900 block of South State Street. Today, the former headquarters is home to several small businesses (including Eysaman’s architecture firm).
The Index recently met Eysaman at his office to discuss the building and its nomination.

TACOMA DAILY INDEX: How far along are you in the process of nominating the building?

GERALD EYSAMAN: I’m doing some initial background research. The nice thing about Darmer, the man who did the first phase of this building, is his drawings exist in the archives at the University of Washington. I got a set of the original drawings for the first part of the building. Then I went through the Tacoma library. I’m sure you know of the work that’s been done by Brian Kamens at the [Tacoma Public Library Northwest Room]. He has dedicated his life to recording things. In Tacoma, it’s real easy to find a lot of documentation on buildings.

INDEX: What is the historical significance of this building?

EYSAMAN: It was originally built next to us — just the one slot that Darmer built for the newspaper. Everything else on the block was torn down to put their additions on. This was the second building. There was a house on the corner which, were it to remain, would probably be historic today. History tears down history. But [the significance is] the whole newspaper being in town. The important role this building had in recording Tacoma history. The paper was here until it moved to its new location. A lot of public events occurred around the building. Like having the boxing fights, and having famous people come here, like Babe Ruth. There are a lot of historical facts that place the building as an important function of this community separate than the building. It could have been any building. But the historical events make it important. The fact that Darmer did the first chunk of it is significant because he was one of Tacoma’s big architects during the turn of the last century. I think because it’s his work, it’s significant. It’s very much a simple architectural building. But that’s part of Tacoma’s history.

INDEX: What has the process been like so far for this building, and in general, in terms of completing the nomination application?

EYSAMAN: It depends on the building and on resources available. For this building, once I start to get into it, it’s going to be pretty easy because it was the Tacoma News Tribune. There’s going to be a lot of significant history on the TNT that will justify this building getting on the register. Darmer, having done the first chunk, will go a long way to providing justification for it to be on here. Also, the kind of building it is, I think it’s part of Tacoma’s history — small, brick-and-glass, commercial office building. I think those things will go a long way toward supporting it being nominated. There are different levels of research you can do. It depends how far you want to go with it. How much you want to talk about it.

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If you have any information about the former TNT building that might add to the nomination application, contact Gerald Eysaman at EysamanCo@aol.com .