Allen C. Mason, Tacoma’s premier early promoter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, will get his bronze statue.

Embedded in the sidewalk in front of his welcoming pose, you will see a 5-foot-wide bronze replica of his Star of Destiny – 120 pro-Tacoma sayings in the shape of a five-pointed star.

Tacoma’s Star of Destiny appeared in a long-running series of advertisements Mason ran – at a cost of $5,000 a month – in major newspapers across the U.S.

He wanted folks back east to find their own destiny on parcels in his North End Tacoma real estate developments.

Mason gets credit for the star. He came up with the concept and inspiration, according to published newspaper reports. But Mason didn’t draw it.

When organizers of the $238,000 Mason Plaza project at North 26th and Proctor streets unveil the statue and star in November, they also will note on the monument the name of the land surveyor and civil engineer who drew the star, Lawson A. Nicholson.

Does that name ring any bells? He doesn’t have his name on a church, a school or a street, like Allen C. Mason does. But Nicholson played significant roles in Tacoma’s development.

Nicholson’s heirs donated two pickup truck loads of historic field books, maps and business records to the land survey archives at the state Department of Natural Resources in 1991. Those records included a copy of the Star of Destiny – plus Nicholson’s land survey records of most of Tacoma.

That version of the star and a hand-drawn Nicholson map of the Puyallup Indian Reservation hang on the walls in the DNR’s survey office in Olympia.

Historical accounts note the achievements of Nicholson, who served as city engineer in Tacoma, Ruston, Steilacoom and Everett during his career.

When civic leaders wanted to open a waterfront road between Tacoma and Ruston, they turned to Nicholson to engineer a concrete-lined tunnel under the copper smelter property – the same tunnel we drive through today.

When business interests at the Port of Tacoma wanted to expand shipping opportunities on the far eastern edge of the Tideflats, they had Nicholson design the Hylebos Waterway.

When boosters of the Tacoma Speedway – which operated from 1912 to 1992 in what now is Lakewood – needed someone to design their racetrack, they turned to Nicholson. Herbert Hunt’s “History of Tacoma, Vol. III” credits Nicholson with engineering a first-ever racetrack innovation.

“He designed the Tacoma automobile speedway,” Hunt wrote, “and his idea of slopes graduated in steepness to the varying speeds is similar to the practice since adopted in eastern speedways.”

But if you had asked Nicholson to name his favorite engineering feat, he probably would have had said, “Stadium Bowl.”

At least Hunt thought highly of it.

“His most important work is the Tacoma Stadium, which was designed by him, the horseshoe form and disposition of the entrance and the retaining walls being original with him. This is a prominent feature in Tacoma’s waterfront,” Hunt wrote. “His development of the design of the impressive Tacoma Stadium would of itself be sufficient to carry down his name to future generations.”

You would have thought so.

In U.S. history, land surveyors held prominent, powerful positions because they determined the boundaries of land ownership and often served as the repository of the records. Three of the four presidential faces on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota – Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln – worked as land surveyors.

But something must have gone haywire with Tacoma history for Nicholson’s name to fade into it.

Credit the Proctor Business District boosters for reviving the Nicholson name as part of the Mason Plaza project.

“What we’re going to say is the Star of Destiny was created by Allen C. Mason and designed by L.A. Nicholson,” said Joe Quilici, former director of Tacoma’s Planning Department, Proctor businessman and chairman of the Mason Plaza project.

“I love history. We want to be true to history,” Quilici said.

The cast-bronze star, just finished by a Pennsylvania foundry, sits today in storage at The Bronze Works in downtown Tacoma.

In a newspaper report from the early 1950s, a photographer captured Nicholson’s daughter, Dorothy, standing by her father’s drawing.

She read some of the sayings, “Less average rainfall than Chicago. Highest average wage scale in the Northwest. Ideal for retired capitalists. No poisonous bugs or reptiles.”

A reporter captured the moment: Gazing at the map, Miss Nicholson remarked wistfully, “The oldtimers certainly believed in their town. We could use a little of that spirit these days.”

One of those oldtimers, Lawson A. Nicholson, will finally get his due.

Dan Voelpel: 253-597-8785

dan.voelpel@thenewstribune.com

Allen C. Mason Plaza

The project – funded through foundation and government grants and individual donations – still needs about $20,000 to reach its $238,000 goal.

The plaza, outside the Wheelock Library at North 26th and Proctor streets, includes a statue of Mason, a bronze replica of Tacoma’s Star of Destiny and six pillars originally used to hold up the portico on Mason’s home.

Dedication ceremony: November

For information: www.proctorbusinessdistrict.com, click on Allen C. Mason Plaza link

To donate: Make tax-deductible checks to Tacoma Historical Society, PO Box 1865, Tacoma, WA 98401.

E-mail: masonplaza@gmail.com