U.S. Courthouse at Union Station (Union Depot)

Publication Date

2019

Document Type

Encyclopedia Entry

Abstract

With its great copper-clad dome, the Union Depot has been a Tacoma landmark for over 100 years. It was Tacoma’s second railroad station, replacing an earlier wood-frame structure built in 1883 that initially stood on the west side of Pacific Avenue near South Seventeenth Street. Later, the Northern Pacific Railway moved the wooden depot across Pacific Avenue to a site between South Seventeenth and South Nineteenth streets, where the current building stands. The location of the 1911 depot, on a slope above the Northern Pacific railyards, has a commanding view of Commencement Bay and the Port of Tacoma and anchors a historic industrial district that grew up south of Tacoma’s central business district. Today, the depot has been converted into the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and stands across Pacific Avenue from the University of Washington Tacoma campus.

Publication Title

SAH Archipedia

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