Setting the Stage
One hundred years ago this week, on January 7, 1918, the new Pantages
Theatre opened in downtown Tacoma as part of Alexander Pantages's vaudeville circuit. Born in Greece, Alexander Pantages came to the United States in the early 1880s and as a young man traveled to the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, where he produced plays that were staged in the restaurants he worked in. In 1902 he moved to Seattle, where he opened the Crystal Theater, which became a huge success. The first house to carry the name Pantages Theater opened in Seattle in 1904, and a second, larger, Pantages theater opened there in 1915.
By this time, Pantages managed or operated dozens of theaters in the western U.S. and Canada. For his Tacoma theater, he hired noted Seattle architect B. Marcus Priteca, who would eventually design 22 theaters for Pantages. Priteca's most recent project before the Tacoma Pantages was Seattle's Coliseum Theater -- now a Banana Republic clothing store -- which also celebrates a birthday this week.
The Tacoma Pantages operated as a live theater for only a few years before becoming primarily a movie house, When Pantages sold it, it was renamed the Orpheum, and later, the Roxy. By the 1980s the building was showing its age, but was lovingly restored to its former glory in 1983. It has since been renamed the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts and is the oldest of the Pantages-built theaters still in operation.
Coming of Age
Apparently the new year is a popular time for Washington cities to form or incorporate, as this week bears out. On January 4, 1851, the first land claims were filed for the future town of Oak Harbor. On January 8, 1875, George and Mary Washington founded the town of Centerville, which later became Centralia. And on January 7, 1884, Tacoma City and New Tacoma merged into one, to be called simply Tacoma.
On January 7, 1893, Wenatchee incorporated as a fourth-class city, and soon proclaimed itself the "Apple Capital of the World." Exactly 10 years later, Monroe was incorporated and later became known for its dairy farms, as well as the home of the state reformatory. Georgetown incorporated on January 8, 1904, but was annexed by Seattle six years later. And on January 7, 1908, the newly incorporated town of Poulsbo held its first council meeting.
