by John Stevens
November 10, 2010 10:16 AM
It is not an uncommon thing to hear about different pieces of history being discovered hidden away inside self-storage facilities. It is uncommon; however, to hear about a self-storage facility that is a part of history itself. That happens to be the case for Tacoma Self Storage.
In late October, the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation announced that Tacoma Self Storage was being nominated for consideration as a national historic landmark. The Tacoma Landmarks Commission has already designated the building as historically significant.
The original tenants of the building, the Tacoma Ice Company, provided a vital and necessary service to the growth and development of Tacoma as an industrial and shipping center. It is the building’s involvement with that development that makes it eligible to be on the National Register of Historic Places.
It is also a prime example of industrial architecture that was designed by Albert W. Sterrett, one of the best refrigeration engineers of his day.
Tacoma Self Storage is a relatively young company having only begun operations a few years ago and has yet to establish much history. The building that is Tacoma Self Storage is another story. It has been around for close to a century.
The Tacoma Ice Company built the facility to use as a cold storage plant. For the next half century the building witnessed the growth of a major center for shipping and industry on the West Coast. Tons of ice was shipped out of the doors of the building in that time as the company was one of the main providers of ice and refrigeration in a day before home refrigerators became common place.
However, when many of the breweries and other industrious efforts in the downtown area that the building is in began to shut down in the 1970s the end was near. With the advent of home refrigeration there just was not a need for a cold storage plant. Due to technological advances the Tacoma Ice Company’s cold storage plant had become obsolete so in 1988 it had no choice, but to shut its doors.
Fast- forward a quarter century and the old cold storage plant was sold. Repairs and upgrades were made on the interior of the building to make it suitable for use and able to stand the test of time even further than it already had. Storage was its intended purpose once again, except instead of cold storage it was self-storage.
And Tacoma Self Storage was born.
Sources Used:
2 Tacoma buildings slated for state, national historic registers. The Tacoma Daily Index, Oct, 27, 2010.
http://www.tacomadailyindex.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=88&cat=23&id=1864449&more=0
Tacoma- SelfStorage.com/aboutus.html