wander- stadium high

I was so very blessed this summer to travel all over the place, but one of my most favorite memories was being able to explore a little bit more of my good ‘ol home state of Washington, with my dear mother.

I worked the three Tacoma sessions of EFY just like last year, but this year was amazing in a whole different way. Mainly because my little sister, Shaunessy, came to the last session as a participant!!! I had been looking forward to it for months and it was an absolute blast and a blessing having her around that week. Having her come also meant being able to see my mom, who I love so very much. She came up the weekend before Shaunessy which gave us a little bit of time to catch up.

Mom had read my blog when it was super new and surprised me with an adventure in hand. One of the many things I love so much about my parents is that when I tell them about a dream of mine (like having an adventure blog) it becomes their dream for me. They have never once told me “You can’t do that” it’s always been “How can we make that happen?” and I am so very blessed because of that. So that day we decided to explore. Before Mom had left our small hometown of Connell, her boss told her about a beautifully historic high school located just a few miles from the University of Puget Sound where I was staying.

Stadium High has such an amazing history! After doing a little bit of research I found on Earthlink.net that the building was not intended to be a school at all but was originally built to be a grand, French Renaissance style hotel for the North Pacific Railroad Company. They began to build the Olympic or the Tourist, as it was to be called, in 1891 but it came to a halt when the depression’s financial crisis hit. The empty shell of the building was used to store lumber, but after a mysterious fire in 1898, the North Pacific Railroad gave up and began using it’s salvaged bricks to build railroad stations in Montana and Idaho.

In the early 1880s Tacoma high school students were crammed into many different buildings with the younger kids. Knowing this and seeing the remains of the hotel a few members of the school board sought to make the building into a high school and after consultations and fund initiatives they were able to make this goal a possibility. The building that was then called Tacoma High School was completed on September 10, 1906 with a total production cost of $500,000. (photo found: http://www.klippert.com/Stadium/History.html)

Since then many different renovation projects have taken place, the Bowl was built, and the name changed to Stadium High when another school needed to be built. The Bowl has since housed many different community events such as tournaments, concerts, drills, dances, even gladiator-style chariot races. The school itself is also the set of the infamous movie “10 Things I Hate About You” (we miss you Heath Ledger).

I’m so glad I got the chance to experience this beautiful landmark and especially doing so with my sweet sweet mother. If you’re ever in the Tacoma, Washington area I would definitely recommend giving it a go.