Titlows return to Tacoma’s Titlow Beach, rowboat in tow
Something about the feel of the classic-looking wooden boat Joe Titlow spent two years crafting carried his imagination back to the early 1900s — the era when his grandparents built a once-famous Tacoma hotel near the shores of the Puget Sound.
Joe Titlow never met them, but he turned his labor of love into an homage to them. He named the craft after his grandmother, Stella.
Titlow, 70, brought the boat to the Northwest from his home in Southern California this month for a small family reunion and a tour of the region his grandparents helped promote a century ago. He built his trip around the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, where tens of thousands of visitors got a look at Titlow’s craftsmanship last week.
The retired engineer was proud of his handiwork. It’s a 17-foot long Whitehall boat with a wineglass-shaped hull.
It’s surprisingly light, weighing less than 120 pounds. Titlow hauled it behind a Mini Cooper along his West Coast route.
Its planks are made from western red cedar, and it’s topped with lumber from a Sitka spruce. They’re both Northwest trees that fit Stella’s theme.
“This was a long project for Joe,” said his wife, Marilyn.
She and her family members had broad smiles this week when they dropped by Titlow Beach, the Tacoma park that still carries the family name.
Marilyn and Joe have two daughters who brought their husbands from California to reconnect with relatives up here.
They were joined by Joe’s older sister, Alice Titlow Hedberg of University Place.
The older Titlows teased the younger ones that they couldn’t leave town without buying T-shirts imprinted with the family name.
Their family’s ties to Tacoma date back to 1903, when Ohio-born attorney Aaron Titlow bought the land that would one day hold his hotel. He and Stella accomplished their dream eight years later, when they opened the Hotel Hesperides.
Its 30 guestrooms became a regional attraction, drawing visitors to Tacoma by train and ferry. Each room had a balcony facing out to the Puget Sound.
Joe’s dad, Mark, used to help his parents by toting luggage for their guests. Sometimes his dad would employ a Shetland pony to help haul the bags.
The hotel closed in 1923 after Aaron Titlow’s death. Metro Parks Tacoma now owns and operates it as Titlow Lodge, a place for banquets, weddings and other events.
The family has not owned the land for decades, but Joe Titlow said he knew where to call home when he finished his boat and carved Stella’s name into its aft.
“Since I can put anything on the back of it, I decided to put its home port as Titlow Beach,” he said.
This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Titlows return to Tacoma’s Titlow Beach, rowboat in tow."