A confident Tacoma welcomes the Winthrop Hotel
Tacoma was booming in May 1925.
There was an auto show at South Ninth and K streets, the first in 15 years in the city. The News Tribune was full of advertisements for movies at the Blue Mouse and Pantages theaters, for mountain and coast resorts where people could drive their shiny new cars, and for fashionable clothing at Peoples department store – where “Tailored Coats Are Pronounced Tacoma Favorites.”
And, for a couple of days, the paper devoted a vast amount of space to the May 16 opening of the swank Winthrop Hotel.
“Hotel Dedication Marks High Tide of Tacoma Spirit,” it declared in the May 15 edition. The front-page headline appeared alongside two photos of a reception the night before for hotel investors and their wives. A group of 2,300 investors pooled their money to pay for the $2.4 million building, which went up during a golden age of hotel construction.
The following day, another front-page story appeared along with a prominent photo of the “first guest” signing the hotel register, one Floyd Steele, a man described as the “first white boy” born in Tacoma.
“Tacoma’s Faith Is Shown – New Hotel Is Another Monument to the Enterprise of a Confident Citizenship,” the headline read.
Years later, the paper reported that Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Bachrach were really the first guests, staying on their honeymoon night – Feb. 24, 1925 – while the hotel was still under construction.
Herbert Bachrach said his father operated a store on Broadway and that the family knew the Winthrop’s purchasing agent. The agent suggested the couple stay in the hotel, and Bachrach took him up on it.
“That night we were assigned rooms 301-302,” Bachrach said in a May 14, 1950, news article. “There were no elevators and the steps were still in the rough form. But the room was finished and there was furniture in it. The next day we went east on our honeymoon and the hotel people took the furniture back out and went on building.”
The grand-opening coverage included articles about the “24 modern shops” housed within the hotel, and the elaborate telephone network that included 300 “telephone instruments” and “more than 71 miles” of wire – enough to reach from the Winthrop “almost to Paradise Inn.”
In case the coverage in the news section wasn’t gushing enough, the paper also ran an editorial calling the hotel “An Inspiring Sight.”
“The opening of the new hotel is a long stride forward in the development of the city,” it stated. “Its erection shows that Tacoma can accomplish great things when it makes up its mind to do so.”
But for all the glamour and optimism, the hotel struggled financially for most of its life before being converted to apartments in 1972. The investors never made a return. Except for the World War II years, it was seldom more than half full.
In 1962, the Winthrop nearly closed before Aberdeen, Grays Harbor County, hotel operator William A. Hamman – he ran that city’s Morck Hotel – took it over. He planned a major renovation, complete with construction of a “helistop.”
“Downtown Tacoma would be approximately six minutes by helicopter from the Peninsula airport and 12 to 15 minutes from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport,” the paper reported May 16, 1963. The stop was never built.
In 1969, the paper reported that the University of Puget Sound reserved 25 rooms at the Winthrop to handle its largest freshman class enrollment since World War II. Fifty “male upperclassmen are going to have rooms complete with maid service and television,” the article stated.
By 1971, the paper was reporting on plans to convert the hotel into apartments. “Winthrop Hotel Lonely During Its Last Hours,” was the headline Aug. 1, 1971.
“While crowds filled the popular ‘practice mall’ between Ninth and 13th streets Saturday evening, the nearby Winthrop Hotel, seemingly very lonely, ticked off the final hours of its 46-year career,” the article stated. “Only a few persons were to be found in the landmark building’s lobby; chairs stood empty in rows under the magnificent, lighted chandeliers in the Crystal Ballroom, seemingly wondering their fate.”
For the last 36 years, the building has provided a home to many of Tacoma’s senior citizens and low-income residents. A couple of years ago, talk of returning the Winthrop to its former glory began spreading through town when its owners put it on the market.
Last year, Tacoma developer Prium Cos. bought the Winthrop with a plan to restore it, and is seeking a new home for its low-income residents.
If it succeeds, the transformation of the Winthrop, like its opening, might be declared a monument to the enterprise of a confident citizenship.
Jason Hagey; 253-597-8542
blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics
This is one of a series of stories appearing during The News Tribune’s 125th year. Every Sunday we take a look at what happened during the same week sometime in the past 125 years. To suggest a week or an event for an upcoming story, e-mail your idea and any details to
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