Melissa McGinnis

Tacoma's Wright Park Melissa McGinnis

The origins of Wright Park date to 1886, when the Tacoma Land Company--the real estate agency of the Northern Pacific Railway--donated 27 acres of land to the newly incorporated and booming young railroad town of Tacoma on the condition that it become a city park. A hilly, logged, and brambly parcel of land, the acreage was nonetheless enthusiastically received by citizens of Tacoma. Named in honor of Charles Barstow Wright, the president of the Tacoma Land Company, Wright Park and its surrounding streets and avenues soon became the early address of distinction for Tacoma's grand residences as well as many educational, religious, and medical institutions. Now, more than a century later, Tacoma's landmark Wright Park is the recipient of renewed citizen investment and appreciation, as this photographic retrospective demonstrates.