Working Waterfront Maritime Museum

The Northern Pacific Office Building is a three-story historic office building in Tacoma, Washington that served as the headquarters of the Northern Pacific Railway's Tacoma division. Built in 1888, the brick, stucco, stone and cast iron structure stands on a high bluff overlooking the Commencement Bay harbor and extensive railroad switching yards that fan out across the tide flats below at the mouth of the Puyallup River where it flows into Puget Sound. The flats are densely developed with heavy industry that has grown up around the railroad facilities and the Port of Tacoma. The site was originally a choice location across from the Tacoma City Hall (extant and listed in the National Register) and at the north end of Pacific Avenue, the main street through the city's central business district.The building is unusual for an Italian Renaissance design. Triangular in plan to fit the street plan and the bluff. There is a four-story circular tower on the north, which widens in a series of curves and re-entrant angles to become a conventional four-story rectangular plan. The rectangular section was demolished in 1975. The remaining structure is three stories in height. A bracketed entablature continued around the tower, separating the three lower stories from the top floor and the lantern above.The foundation is ashlar stone to the first floor. There is a substantial water table with brick walls, covered by stucco. A narrow belt course divides the second and third floors from the one below. The belt rests on the capitals of pilasters that divide the wall into a series of panels.The frieze atop the third floor continues from the tower section to the four-story rectangular section. The rectangular section was demolished in 1974. The cornice, an elaborate belt course did not carry over from the tower section. The strip pilasters have a broad pediment on the second floor level. A cornice at the top of the tower conceals a gable roof. The four-story, rectangular section had a flat roof. The tower is topped with a low conical roof and lantern. There are two street level entrances. A formal entrance has a suspended canopy with double doors and a transom arch on pilasters. A second entrance is further down the street.In the early 1920s, the four-story section at the south end of the building was demolished and rebuilt for security reasons. It was demolished in 1974 to widen Pacific Avenue. A blank brick and concrete wall remains with some of the roof structure exposed.

The Old City Hall is a five-story building in Tacoma, Washington that served as the city hall in the early 20th century. The building features a ten-story clocktower on the southeast corner, facing the intersection of Pacific Avenue and S 7th Street.The building uses masonry bearing walls combined with numerous windows. The windows on the second and third floors are of equal size. The fourth story windows are arched at the top. The fifth story windows are smaller and narrower.The foundation is a local Wilkeson stone, which is light gray. The walls are eight feet thick at the base and taper to six feet at street level. They are covered with a façade of red brick faced with yellow Roman brick. These bricks are believed to have been ballast from China or Belgium or to have been imported from Italy. The tower is a freestanding masonry with a clock on each face.The building is a trapezoid in plan and reflects the Italian Villa style. Small round windows appear below the corner line; three large round windows occur below the corner on the tower.The tower's base has heavy brackets above the corner of the main structure and narrow rectangular windows on the tower body. A group of three arched windows are at the top on each side. A row of small round windows circles the tower between the arched windows and the eave line. Terra cotta decorations embellish the tower and areas of the entablature. The tower has a clock and a set of four bells. The clock and the bells were cast by the McShane Bell Foundry in Baltimore, the same company that cast the Liberty Bell. The bells is 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg) of silver bell metal. Hugh Campbell Wallace of Tacoma, who would later become the United States ambassador to France, gave the bells and chimes in memory of his daughter on Christmas Day, 1904. The pendulum of the clock, 12 feet (3.7 m) in length, is suspended on a single wire, 40 feet (12 m) in length. The mechanism is gravity run and the motors are wound electrically.

Theater District/South 9th Street was a light rail station on Link light rail's T Line in Tacoma, Washington, United States. The station officially opened for service on August 22, 2003; it was located at the northern end of downtown and named for the several nearby performing arts venues.The station closed on August 1, 2022, as part of work to connect the T Line with its extension to the Hilltop neighborhood. In 2023, another station will open two blocks north, adjacent to the Old City Hall building.Artwork at the station reflects the Theater District: Seats at the station resemble fold-up theater seats Bronze plaques in the ground are reproductions of historical theatrical posters Projectors project theatrical scenes on screens at night

The Pantages Theatre or Jones Building in Tacoma, Washington was designed by the architect B. Marcus Priteca. The unusual structure opened in January 1918. It was designed to be an office building and a vaudeville theatre. The theaters Second Renaissance Revival style is juxtaposed with the Commercial style. The exterior above the ground floor is largely unaltered. The building still houses entertainment and commercial activities (Tacoma City Theaters).

Frost Park (officially Larry L. Frost Memorial Park) is a public park in Tacoma, Washington. Named after police officer Larry Frost, the park is located at the intersection of South Ninth Street and Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma. Frost Park has a fountain and hosts chalk art competitions.

The Spanish Steps, also known as the Spanish Stairs, are stairs in Tacoma, Washington's Old City Hall Historic District, in the United States. Modeled after Rome's Piazza di Spagna, the stairs were built in 1916 to connect Broadway and Commerce. The stairs are adjacent to the Elks Temple, and have served as a fire escape for the building. Since McMenamins began operating in the building, the stairs have housed a cafe and patio.According to the Daily Journal of Commerce, "The staircase is an important east-west pedestrian connection within the north end of Tacoma's downtown. The Spanish Steps serve as an access point to transportation facilities, including those for Pierce Transit and LINK light rail, which connects with the Sounder commuter rail line."The stairs were restored in 2011. Fodor's has called the Spanish Steps "famous".

The Elks Temple in Tacoma, Washington is a historic Beaux Arts Fraternal building built in 1916 for the Fraternal Order of Elks, now housing the McMenamins Elks Temple hotel, restaurant and event space.: 14  The building is included in the Old City Hall Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Pierce County.

The National Bank of Tacoma Building, also known as the National Bank of Washington and as the Tacoma Art Museum, is a former bank building in downtown Tacoma, Washington, United States. It was designed by Sutton & Whitney and built in 1921. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.The bank changed its name to the National Bank of Washington in 1937. In 1970, the building ceased to be used for banking and was sold to the Tacoma Art Museum, which converted it in 1970–1971 for use as an art museum. It remained in use as the Tacoma Art Museum until 2003, when the museum moved to a new building. Already in 2002, in anticipation of its move, the art museum sold the former bank building to the Asia Pacific Cultural Center.In 2007, a business named Sound Inpatient Physicians moved into the building. Sound Physicians remained there until 2015, when the company moved to another building in downtown Tacoma. As of October 2017, the building was for sale.

The Rialto Theatre in Tacoma, Washington was built in 1918 to showcase movies. Its design reflects the affluence following World War I. It reflects the character of a palace and is the result of efforts by entrepreneur Henry T. Moore and Tacoma architect Roland E. Borhek. Designed to hold 1500 patrons (revised to 780 today) and retail space. The two-and-a-half-story structure is in the historic downtown of Tacoma. The area has long been associated with theaters and entertainment. The theater is freestanding, with a dramatic view on an incline with a classical façade sheathed of glazed white terra cotta. Both the interior and exterior retain most of the original design of Roland E. Borhek. The theater has an auditorium, proscenium with stage, a relocated projection booth, balcony, lobby, and commercial space. It has been altered with the removal of the storefronts and marquee. On the inside, the lobby's decorative ceiling has been hidden and the concession areas expanded. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

The Pythian Temple, built in 1906 for Commencement Lodge Number 7 of the Knights of Pythias, is an historic building located on Broadway in the Theater District of Tacoma, Washington. It was designed by noted Tacoma architect Frederick Heath. Like many multistory urban fraternal buildings built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, its lower floors were rented out for retail and office spaces while the upper floors were reserved for lodge use. This pattern of usage continues into the 21st century for this building, although Commencement Lodge plans to renovate the building to permit the rental of its hall for cultural events.On August 23, 1985, Pythian Temple was added to the National Register of Historic Places.The building was featured in the summer 2008 newsletter of the Marian Dean Ross Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians. The group reported that the Pythian order remains active and is working to preserve its 1906 building and has received grants for work on the Knights of Pythias Castle Hall. "This two-story hall, completely hidden within the building's interior, is a rich confection of early 20th Century woodwork, plaster, lighting, murals and carpeting."For a short period in the mid-1990s, the Pythian Temple hosted a local gypsy theater company, and its ornate auditorium was the setting for productions of such plays as Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, Inherit the Wind, 12 Angry Men, and Talk Radio. In addition to the Knights of Pythias, the building houses the Tacoma Youth Theater and Seabury Middle School.

Downtown is the central business district of Tacoma, Washington, United States, located in the inner Northeast section of the city. It is approximately bounded east-west by A Street and Tacoma Avenue, and north-south by South 7th Street and South 25th Street. The center of downtown is the intersection of 9th and Broadway.

The Thea Foss Waterway, formerly the City Waterway, is a north–south inlet of Commencement Bay separating downtown Tacoma, Washington, from the Port of Tacoma.