- The [Steilacoom] site was very fine for a city, with a good roadstead, but its ambitious beginning was rudely curtained into a suburb of Tacoma, which did not spring up until twenty years later. The congress that closed on the 3rd of March, 1853, had created the Territory of Washington, and President Pierce appointed I.I.Stevens, an ex-army officer, Governor. The new administration made many removals, among them Judge Strong, and Agent Starling. The news of the changes did not come to us until early in the month of May, and were matters of great moment to the people.
- Tacoma — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Tacoma epitomizes the cultural, economic, social, and technological development of the Puget Sound region and the entire state of Washington. Situated above Commencement Bay on scenic bluffs that were home to the Puyallup Tribe and other native peoples for millennia, the county seat of Pierce County possesses a natural harbor that was admired by the sound’s earliest Euro-American explorers. Tacoma won the prize of the era in 1873 when the Northern Pacific Railroad selected it as its western terminus. Tacomans have since established their community as a regional center for Pacific Rim shipping, forest products, high technology, and the arts. Ranked in the 2000 census as Washington’s third-largest city, Tacoma in the early years of the twenty-frist century embarked on an urban renaissance, with the construction of light rail transit, new museums and cultural centers, and a state-of-the-art telecommunications network.
- Washington Territorial Legislature incorporates the City of Steilacoom on April 22, 1854. (historylink.org)
On April 22, 1854, Steilacoom becomes the first town in Washington to be incorporated by the new Washington Territorial Legislature. Originally two separate and competing towns founded in 1851 by Lafayette Balch (1825-1862) and John B. Chapman (1797-1877), they are combined into one by the incorporating legislation. Initially Steilacoom grows rapidly as an industrial and economic center. Despite its promising start, railroad construction in the 1870s will bypass the town, and its growth will slow as Tacoma becomes Pierce County’s main industrial and economic center. Steilacoom will eventually evolve into a commuter town surrounded by encroaching suburban development. Local efforts to preserve historic buildings and sites in Steilacoom beginning in the 1960s will lead to the town being named one of the state’s first designated historic districts.
- Tacoma, Washington (Wikipedia)
Tacoma (/təˈkoʊmə/ tə-KOH-mə) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington’s Puget Sound, 32 miles (51 km) southwest of Seattle, 36 miles (58 km) southwest of Bellevue, 31 miles (50 km) northeast of the state capital, Olympia, 58 miles (93 km) northwest of Mount Rainier National Park, and 80 miles (130 km) east of Olympic National Park. The city’s population was 219,346 at the time of the 2020 census. Tacoma is the second-largest city in the Puget Sound area and the third-most populous in the state. Tacoma also serves as the center of business activity for the South Sound region, which has a population of about 1 million.
