Point Defiance Park’s scenic waterfront has been attracting visitors since the park’s earliest days. The current Point Defiance Marina can trace its origins back to 1903.
Early Visitors Flocked to Point Defiance Waterfront
Point Defiance Park was created in 1888 when the federal government transferred the Point Defiance Military Reserve to the city of Tacoma for use as a public park.
But developing the park proved a challenge. With limited road access, visitors arrived by boat and, after 1890, by streetcar. Facilities at the park were also limited.
People wanted somewhere to rent a boat or store their own. To meet this need, the Park Board leased space for a boathouse, restaurant, and float to J. Olson as early as 1895 for a fee of $5 a month.
But the Park Board had grander visions for the Point Defiance waterfront and wanted a more permanent boathouse at Owen Beach. In 1902, Edwin Ferris, who had contracted to run the boathouse only the year before, approached the board with an offer they found too good to refuse: he would build a new boathouse at his own expense. In exchange, the board agreed to award him a ten-year contract to run the waterfront’s boat rental and restaurant concessions.
Pavilion Brings Visitors to Point Defiance Park
The new boathouse, often called the Point Defiance Pavilion, opened to the public in 1903. Resting on pilings above Commencement Bay, the striking two-story yellow and white building cost $5,000 to build. The building was small, only sixty feet in diameter and encircled by a wraparound covered veranda.
Ferris and his wife Edith lived upstairs with their five children.
The first floor housed a restaurant and snack stand. Boat storage and rentals were located below the building. A boat landing was also available.
Edith Ferris managed food services at the pavilion. Visitors could get soft drinks, candy, popcorn, ice cream and peanuts from the concession stand or opt to dine in the restaurant. Her restaurant became famous. Many Tacomans told their East Coast friends that they had to try her clam chowder, made from clams delivered fresh daily from Vashon Island.
Great Depression Fizzled Expansion Plans
Ferris’ new boathouse/pavilion proved so popular that the Park Board added a second streetcar line to accommodate crowds. Automobiles would bring even more visitors after World War I. Events like the Fourth of July and salmon derbies brought thousands to the park and strained facilities to the max.
To meet this growing demand, the Park Board hired architects Ambrose Russell and Earl Dugan to design a new boathouse. The massive concrete building would have had two wings flanking a central tower.
Only one 90 by 170-foot section of the building would ever be built. Two concrete arches and decking were erected in 1919. The ground floor was added in 1921. Two stories were added above in 1925 for $35,000.
The new building provided a new kitchen, lunchrooms, and public meeting space. An esplanade was constructed along the shoreline bulkhead. Visitors could enjoy a picnic while taking in
spectacular views.
The boathouse had enough boat lockers to store 250 private boats and maintained a fleet of nearly 200 rentals. In 1927, the boathouse manager made $150 a month while boathands earned 50 cents an hour, working 1 am to 10 pm daily during the busy summer season. The crew was kept very busy—during morning rush hours they were often lowering one boat per minute!
Great Depression Brings WPA
The Great Depression put a stop to the Park Board’s ambitious boathouse expansion plans—for a time. The deteriorating original octagonal pavilion was demolished in 1933.
In 1936, the ground floor of the 1919/1925 building became home to the new Point Defiance Aquarium. Starting with 20 tanks and 100 specimens, the place quickly became popular. This was in part thanks to its most famous resident, Dub Dub the seal.
The New Deal offered new opportunities for Point Defiance Park. The WPA built a new pavilion to replace the original for $32,000. To save money, they used 150,000 feet of lumber cut and milled at the park. Boat lockers could now accommodate 428 vessels. A 300-car parking lot was built adjacent to the new building.
This structure opened to the public in 1940, in a double dedication ceremony with the nearby Fort Nisqually Living History Museum, another WPA project.
Point Defiance Marina Reborn From Ashes
During World War II, an Army Air Corps crash boat crew was stationed at the pavilion.
Additions to the boathouse in 1947 and 1951 made it among the largest public boathouses in the United States. Boat rentals and storage, the tackle shop, and Boathouse Grill restaurant attracted visitors throughout the year.
In 1963, the Point Defiance Aquarium –and Dub Dub—moved to new facilities on the zoo grounds.
Then disaster struck. A three-alarm fire destroyed the upper two floors of the 1919/1925 building in 1974. The bottom floor was saved and continues to be used for boat storage. In 1984, the 1940 WPA building also burned.
Demand for rebuilding was immediate. Tacoma wanted its boathouse back. Harris-Tsing Architects began construction on a new four-million-dollar boathouse in 1986. It opened in 1988, Point Defiance Park’s centennial year.
This new complex forms the heart of Point Defiance Marina at Owen Beach. It is a place for people to gather and to enjoy Tacoma’s scenic waterfront, as it has been for past generations and will be for generations to come.
