TIAS 515 Oral History Paper
Civic Pride and the Ebb and Flow of Tacoma's Development
Andrew Fry
One ofTacoma's most respected and experienced civic activists has witnessed the
ebb and flow ofsuccess resultant from attempts to apply policy and zoning orders to seed
economic activity. Dawn Lucien is a life-long political advocate and tireless champion of
the city of Tacoma. Three ofthe many watermark projects she has worked on provide
insight into the varying degrees of success. These include the damage done to the
downtown merchants when land was rezoned to accommodate the Tacoma Mall in the
early 1960s, the beginnings ofa renaissance and revitalization ofthe Broadway district
with the renovation ofthe historic Pantages Theater in the 1980s, and the dramatic and positive changes along Pacific Avenue and the downtown core brought by the location of
a University of Washington, branch campus in Tacoma. Dawn Lucien has been an ever- present participant in public policy and a seeker of economic development. Her efforts
are intertwined throughout these projects during the decades in which they developed.
The Roots ofEconomic and Civic Engagement
Dawn Lucien may have had the spirit of civic stewardship, the drive to build up a
city, in her blood. It was evidenced far earlier in her family history when her
grandparents came West with Brigham Young in 1846, but split from the church in
opposition of some of its tenets. As Dawn recalls:
My first recollection of my grandparents was when we traveled to Utah on the train when I was five years old. And I met twin cousins, and I met, my mother and my father both came from families of ten.
1 My grandfather had pioneered. He was a settler in Promontory and the family farm was still going strong when I went to visit. He was very active in the community. I guess it runs in the family. Almost all of their offspring settled in the Ogden area. My grandfather had gone to Utah with Brigham Young and left the church because he became disillusioned with the way they actually wanted them to live with multiple wives, etc, when he got there. He organized a group. If you left the church you were sometimes hunted down. So he organized sixteen ofthem to leave the church at the same time. There was such a large number that they were safe in leaving the church. They moved to and founded the little city of Plain City, Utah, where my grandfather, who was a stone mason, built the Episcopal Church which stands there today.
He built that church in 1877, four years after the village of Tacoma landed the
terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad. Her grandfather and Plain City's founding members raised their families and began building their own civic organizations. In its
early days, Plain City had a brass band, a choir, a dramatic association and a baseball team. Besides being active members of the planning and operation of the town, Dawn
Lucien's grandparents were involved in several of the arts activities as well. William
Sharp was one of the first members of the Fort Douglas Band and his wife, Mary Ann
Sharp was a founding member of the arts society. With that family history, it is easy to imagine Dawn's interest in the Tacoma arts scene. 1 This interest would later come into playas part ofTacoma's renovation ofthe Pantages Theater.
Dawn Lucien was born Dawn Sharp in St. Ignatius, Montana, but when her father
experienced some difficulties with the banking system in the Depression the family moved and she was raised in the Yakima Valley from the time she was 9 months old.
She was the youngest of seven girls with a twelve-year gap between herself and the sixth daughter. Dawn was interested in the world and constantly busy participating in Camp
1 Daughters ofUtah Pioneers, Plain City Camp, PLAIN CITY HISTORY, http://www.plaincityutah.orglbodily/utahj)ioneers.htm
2 Fire Girls and serving a tenn as seventh grade president, as examples. From the time she could read she would pick up the newspaper in order to study up for the family's dinner conversations. She has always had an avid interest in the role of government. In Dawn's words:
I know that is what sparked my interest in what was going on in the world as well as what was going on in our community. I have felt that the government closest to you affects you the most because that's the one that fixes the potholes in the streets and that kind of thing. They affect your daily life and how your police department runs and so forth. But I have been fascinated by what goes on at the higher levels of government.
She soon became politically active, the youngest delegate to the Democratic
National Convention in 1948 and the Vice President of Washington State Young
Democrats in 1949.2 In 1952 she married Paul Olson, an assistant to Congressman John
Coffee and President of the organization of congressional administrative assistants in
Washington, DC. They married during his run for Tacoma mayor and they honeymooned in New York two days after his narrow defeat. They settled in North
Tacoma and she had three sons. This did not slow her down as she was elected to help draft a new city charter with the Board of Freeholders, where she held the office of
Secretary. Two years later, and after several weeks of closed door meetings, the City
Council appointed Dawn to a seat left vacant by the departing Mayor Hanson.3 The council's activist agenda included approving an airport for the city, the approval for
Cheney Stadium and the establishment of the Tacoma MalL 4
2 Brochure, Dawn Olson for Congress Committee, W A State Historical Society, ID Number 1997.80.31 3 Denny MacGougan, "Mrs. Olson Has Edge On Council Job", Tacoma News Tribune, June 28, 1960, Denny MacGougan, "Secrecy to Cloak Council Act", Tacoma News Tribune, June 15, 1960 4 Dick Stansfield, "Agreement on Airport Endorsed", Tacoma News Tribune, Oct 18, 1961
3 Unforeseen Consequences in the Establishment ofthe Tacoma Mall
The success of economic development efforts are hard to predict. Phil Hardwick, award winning business columnist and economic development specialist provides an applicable definition in "Basics of Economic Development". He states that "Economic development is something everyone who has ever sought public office or served in public office seems to advocate. Almost every community wants it. ... Nevertheless, it seems that the concept is sometimes difficult to explain and has a mystique surrounding it." 5
Such is the case in the . efforts of Tacoma city leadership and the economic development of the downtown core. As the city continues to define and develop a sustainable community and downtown core, it weighs measures of economic deVelopment with the balance of its character. Decisions to foster growth have resulted in significantly differing successes and failures. Cheney Stadium still fills its seats with fans of the Seattle Mariners Triple A farm club the Tacoma Rainiers and today the commercial flights into the Narrows Field airport are being debated, but the decision to rezone for the build ofthe Tacoma Mall was a difficult blow to the success ofTacoma.
Dawn recalls:
Up until then of course everybody shopped downtown. And back in those days we would put on our hats and our gloves and our high heeled shoes to go shopping in downtown Tacoma just like going shopping in New York city or Seattle or any place else. All the stores were within walking distance and they were niajor stores. Four or five stories, four stories high, three stories high. So that mall made a huge, huge difference in Tacoma.
5 Appendix 10, Basics of Economic Development, Phil Hardwick, 311
4 When Dawn Lucien and the city council of 1960 were approving the zoning
changes that would allow for the establishment of the Tacoma Mall, it was important that
they maintain a balance between the outer reaches of the community and the vibrant
downtown core. As Dawn explains "It was controversial but it was also something that
people basically wanted to see happen in Tacoma. The bad thing was that no one at City
Hall, no one, from the city manager to thecity council asked to see their lease."
Unfortunately, the outcome of the new mall did not move the city in the direction that the council had originally planned. It was December 21 st, 1960 when the first portion of the Interstate 5 freeway had just been built through Tacoma. 6 Preparations were under way for the first designated "World's Fair". Whereas Highway 99 turned into
Tacoma Way and wound its way through the city, 1-5 was about to cut the commute time down dramatically. A trip to Portland which would take six and one half hours in the past could now be done in less than three hours. In Seattle, Northgate Mall was proving a successful venture. Although Northgate was located the same approximate distance from
Seattle's city center as the Tacoma Mall was from Tacoma's, it did not have any adverse economic impact on downtown merchants. But in Tacoma, Dawn notes a significant distinction:
What happened, after we voted to rezone the property so that the mall could be built, the lease said that if you located in the mall, that you could not have another business within two and one half miles, which included downtown Tacoma. That is what killed downtown Tacoma. That is what I have had on my conscience all these years.
Stores that wanted to be one of the 159 stores that operated as part of the mall could not also be part of the downtown core. One million, two hundred thousand square
6 Washington State Department ofTransportation, "Moving Washington for 100 Years", http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Centennia1l1941-1960.htm
5 feet of retail space immediately began competing with the harder to access downtown stores in 1965. 7
If asked, "What does she regret?" of all the great work that she has done over decades of service, it is that rezoning decision. Yet, this was a decision that Tacoma might have ultimately made in any case, as there may not have been a realistic alternative choice.
Relenting a bit on her self criticism, Dawn admits;
[Tacoma City Manager] Erik Anderson said that you must forgive yourself because if they had not located within the city limits they would have located outside the city limits and therefore all the tax revenue that we have enjoyed from the mall all these years would have gone to the county instead of to the city. So I can forgive myself for not asking to see that lease, but I also wonder why someone else from the city manager on down never thought to ask them about how their lease would read. That is a huge omission.
Dawn ran for Congress in 1958 and 1962 after her years in the City Council. She did not win the nomination in the first attempt. 8 In her second attempt at defeating the incumbent Thor Tollefson, she received the Democratic Nomination for the final ballot, but the incumbent won the election and remained in office. She decided to forego a third attempt in 1964, even when .encouraged by then Washington State Senator, Warren
Magnuson. Instead, she focused on family and civic activities. Instead, a fellow she knew from her time growing up in Prosser, Washington, Floyd Hicks was elected. 9
She then met Norm Dicks as Senator Warren Magnuson's administrative assistant. As Dawn puts it:
7 Wikipedia, Tacoma Mall, referencing www.simon.comlabout_simonlleasing/ th 8 Benjamin J. Guthrie, STATISTICS OF THE CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION, November 6 , 1962 9 Kathleen Olson, The Gearshift "Rotary Happenings", Aug 2008
6 Everybody knew [Senator Henry] "Scoop" [Jackson] and [Senator Warren] "Maggie" [Magnuson] back in those days. We had two Senators who were outstanding. Not only were they revered by the people in their own state but highly respected by people all over the nation. Both of them had been in the Senate long enough that they achieved positions of extreme power. Maggie became the senior Senator. But at the time Norm Dicks was his administrative assistant in the early or mid 70's. We knew Norm as Maggie's administrative assistant and when we would go to Washington we would see him and talk to him but I never knew him well. When he decided to take a year offin 1976 and run for Congress he came knocking on our door to ask us if we would help him in his campaign.
He won that year and Dawn became his office assistant and then his administrative assistant from 1976 through 1989. She was also on the board of the Opera
Society when she heard that there was an interest in restoring the Pantages Theater. What may have been considered a specific and targeted historical restoration became the starting point for resurgence of the downtown core's Broadway District and one of the turning points for downtown Tacoma's renaissance. 10
The Revitalization ofDowntown Tacoma Begins With a Renovation
The Pantages Theater, which was to become a symbol of renovation and renaissance in the early 1980's had a long history of arts and entertainment. Tacoma began as a booming town, and at the tum of the century on the comer of 9th and
Broadway stood a saloon, Tacoma's first library and Tacoma's first department store. 11
All of that would be tom down in 1908. A Greek immigrant, Alexander Pantages dreamed of owning beautiful and successful vaudeville theaters across the country and
10 Ray Corpus, 1996 A WC Municipal Achievement Awards. Tacoma's Theater District, "Linking Cultural and Economic Revitalization in Tacoma's Downtown Theater District." 11 About BCPA, "History of the Pantages Theater", http://www.broadwaycenter.org/aboutlhistory.asp
7 .--- ' looked to this site for his second venture after his success in completing the Pantages
venue in San Francisco. The Pantages Theater was designed first as a combination
business office and theater and was situated next to the Jones Building. Construction
began in 1916 and the vaudeville theater and office complex opened in 1918. After eight
years of live theater it RKO Pictures bought it and converted it into a movie theater. It
remained a theater for film and was renamed the Roxy in 1932. The building changed
back to live theater when the city, led by activists in the community and the Tacoma
Opera Society, identified the renovation of the building as a cornerstone for the
revitalization ofTacoma and the Broadway district in 1978.
Dawn explains:
Alexander Pantages built beautiful theaters all over America but this was one of his jewels. It was designed by an architect in Seattle, Priteca, I believe was his name. When we began the process of seeing what we could do to restore the Pantages, his son was still practicing in Seattle and we had the original blueprints for the Pantages that were still in storage in that office.
Seattle architect B. Marcus Priteca designed Tacoma's Pantages after an ornate
theater in the Palace of Versailles. Priteca had met Pantages in 1910 and together they
collaborated on theaters throughout the U.S. In his lifetime he designed 150 theaters
including the Paramount in Seattle. 12
Dawn Lucien was a founding member if the Pantages Centre for the Performing
Arts in 1974, and served as Second Vice President when the Pantages Corporation began
raising 4.5 million in funds for a major restoration. The Corporation assured the City
Council 1980 that the reconstruction plans were on schedule and the Roxy Theater would
12 A Guide to Historic Architecture in Fresno, CA, "B. Marcus Priteca", http://historicfresno.org/bio/priteca
8 once again become the Pantages by 1982. 13 Ultimately, they were only off by a few
months.
The results of that fund-raising did more than expected to contribute to the
revitalization of the downtown that had been troubled for so many years. This included
the 360 room Sheraton Tacoma hotel, which opened in 1984. The first major donor was
the Weyerhaeuser Company, an active Tacoma supporter, which gave the project one
hundred thousand dollars. When they began to have second thoughts they directed the
projects fund raising group to commission a market survey in order to determine if the
project would be successful. A Seattle firm has hired in order to provide some objectivity
to the results and when those results came back as a glowing recommendation of the
community and their excitement over the restoration of the building, they identified
additional projects to invest in around the immediate vicinity. The multistory office
building, the refurbishment of Court C offices and the building of the Tacoma Sheraton
Hotel came about as a result ofthe survey's findings in regards to the potential success of
the Pantages renovation. Dawn Lucien explains:
So not only did the Pantages itself excite people in the community, of course it is a gorgeous restoration but it also started the revitalization of downtown Tacoma. Of course it was the Weyerhaeuser Company that came over here to develop the Sheraton and the twenty one story office tower.
Raising the money would not be easy in the difficult financial times of the early
1980s. Yet around 1.5 million dollars were raised from the state of Washington, 1.5 million came from Washington, DC and approximately 1.5 million came from private
th funding. According to a July 10 , 1981 article in the Tacoma News Tribune, "a federal
13 Richard Sypher, Tacoma News Tribune, ''Pantages reconstruction on schedule, council told", April 24, 1980
9 grant of 1.5 million for restoration of Tacoma's Pantages Theater was approved this morning by the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Representative Norm Dicks and U.S. Senator Slade Gorton announced." When Norm Dicks had asked for Dawn's support running for the Congressional office that afternoon in 1976, one of her first questions was "What do you think of the Pantages?" The one and one half million dollar answer came five years later. As Congressman Dicks pointed out in a Tacoma News
Tribune article covering the receipt of the money, "The 5.3 million Pantages project will be one more important step in the effort to revitalize the downtown area." Hard work by
Virginia Shackelford, board member and originator of the idea, and all the members of the Pantages board of directors including Dawn, were "jubilant". The article also pointed out how close they were to not receiving the funds. The federal Economic
Development Administration, the source ofthe funding, was to be abolished after the end ofthat fiscal year. 14
The fundraising effort was a significant undertaking, and two months later the
The Tacoma News Tribune detailed the stops and starts of the effort, noting that the non governmental sources of funding that the city cOuld not raise, but a non-profit organization such as the one Dawn belonged to could. To that date, they had raised 935 thousand of the 1.6 million dollars in private funds that were needed. Hospitals and educational efforts were easier to fund with foundation money, and a theater, no matter what it might symbolize, was a tougher project to fund. The lack of major corporations in Pierce County did not help, but former Governor Dixie Lee Ray spearheaded the group
th 14 Christine Corbett and Joelle Cohen, Tacoma News Tribune, Pantages receives $1.5 million", July 10 , 1981
10 that would target those large corporations that could be tapped. Dawn was the board's second vice president at the time. IS
Those efforts were rewarded on the 12th of February in 1983 when the Pantages officially reopened. It held its dedication to the renovation efforts the following evening, and Governor John Spellman, Congressman Norm Dicks and Senator Slade Gorton attended, along with now Pantages President Dawn Lucien. That evening, Nellie L.
Longsworth, president of Preservation Action stated, "I have never been to a city that has taken on a project of such magnitude and done it so beautifully .... The national spotlight is on the city ofTacoma and the Pantages Theater." 16
. Tacoma needed its civic victories and the restoration of the Pantages and other renovation efforts were noteworthy. But as a cornerstone of large magnitude historical preservation projects and renovation, Dawn Lucien engaged herself in one of far greater magnitude than this in the acquisition and expansion of a Tacoma branch campus of the
University ofWashington along the downtown waterfront ofPacific Avenue ..
A Downtown Transformation Based on Education
If ever a transformation could be seen with the naked eye over a large section of a city, it would be the stretch from the museum district along Pacific Avenue across from the Thea Foss Waterway, and the former terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Tacoma, then considered ''barely a village", obtained the terminus in 1873, which resulted in decades of economic boom for the city. According to Historylink.org, the
IS Joelle Cohen, The News Tribune, "Pantages fund drive now in high gear", Sept 20, 1981 16 Eve Dumovich, The News Tribune, ''Back patting abounds at Pantages dedication", Fev 13, 1983
11 population of Tacoma grew from 1,098 in 1880 to 36,006 in 1890 during which time the
Northern Pacific built its headquarters building on Pacific Avenue. Warehouses for items
to transport such as grain and lumber lined Pacific Avenue as well. 17
But in later years when the railroad's terminus moved to Seattle and no longer
anchored the city's well being, Pacific Avenue began to decay. Many of the warehouses along Pacific A venue suffered and eventually became vacant. That was until the
University of Washington opened the permanent home of its Tacoma Branch campus in
1997, turning the historically renovated warehouse structures into classrooms and offices.
This effort and the establishment of the branch campus itself are a hallmark in the legacy of Dawn Lucien's civic activity.
Dawn recalls:
I have always served on numerous boards. I am on eight today I think. So I have been on the UWT board for twenty two years and of course that is an achievement that I just think is one of the most remarkable because when we formed our little group in the eighties called the South Puget Sound Education Council to bring the University of Washington branch campus to Tacoma the University of Washington didn't want us. We had to convince the legislature to talk to UPS and PLU, the various universities we already had in this area who looked at it as a rival. It was an uphill, really an uphill fight.
In 1985 she and others formed an organization to bring a branch campus to
Tacoma. At the time, the University of Washington's Seattle campus was not showing any interest in expanding their reach. According to Dawn Lucien the University of
Washington, Seattle did not recognize the benefits they would incur be doing so. She and
Liz Heath became part of a foursome of unpaid lobbyists who presented their case to, the state legislature in Olympia at the same time other people were requesting a branch
17 Elizabeth Anderson, City of Tacoma, Economic Development Brochure, ''Tacoma's Union Station Historic District" and City of Tacoma Economic Development Department, HistoryLink Essay, ''Tacoma-Thumbnail History", http://www.historylink.orgl
12 campus from Washington State University. They testified for committees and organized
their efforts. Dawn believes that it was interest from Washington State University that
resulted in the interest of Seattle's University ofWashington campus:
The wonderful thing that happened was that Sam Smith came over, President of Washington State University; he flew over Tacoma in a helicopter. He said to the newspaper that "I would like to have a branch campus in Tacoma." And that is what got the University of Washington interests. They were sparked to supporting us then, because there was going to be a branch campus in Tacoma. They decided it was going to be UW instead of WSU, so that was a great step forward for us. So then we began to get a little bit different feedback.
Eventually, the University of Washington founded a Tacoma campus in 1990.
The State invested in five new two-year upper division and graduate level campuses
including one in Tacoma. According to the history and timeline from the University's
,'- , web site, the campuses were designed to provide a pathway for community college
transfers and place bound students. IS The universities were also intended to fuel
economic development to the communities that they served. As Dawn saw it:
We envisioned it as a four year campus, ultimately. But we realized that we had to start small. We were very happy to have it as a two year campus just to have it. Those of us who were hoping, working to achieving it as a goal envisioned it as a four year institution by 2010 with a population of 20,000.
Thirteen faculty members began teaching courses for the school in 1990 and
preparations began to site the campus in the Tacoma Union Station neighborhood on a
campus footprint expected to eventually fill 46 acres of land. In 1994 the University
unveiled the initial building plan for the larger campus. It dwarfed in size the renovation
18 University of Washington Tri-Campus Task Force, "University of Washington, Tacoma - History and Timeline", http://www.washington.edulfaculty/facsenate/tri-campusldocuments/tacoma-history. pdf
13 projects that marked the initial renaissance projects of the Broadway district. An August
th 8 , 1994 article in the Tacoma News Tribune reported:
It's been a long wait, but the first building plans for the University of Washington campus in Tacoma are complete. The initial, $33 million campus will mix the present and the past. A library will be built, but otherwise the campus will be dominated by the renovation of five, century-old warehouses along Pacific Avenue. The architects' blend of new and historic brick buildings creates just the type of urban campus UW officials want. 19
Until that time, though the branch campus was in operation, little happened to capture the attention of the community or spur major economic d development, outside of the primary mission of creating graduates whose public baccalaureate education was previously unavailable in Pierce County. "We had three people in the first graduating class of the UWT. I think that half the people in Tacoma were not even aware we had a branch campus until it became visible on Pacific Avenue.", said Dawn.
In 2000 Governor Gary Locke, in response to requests from technology advocacy groups such as the Technology Alliance and the Washington Software Association as well as industry and legislators, proposed the launch of the Institute of Technology.
Given it's ability to launch new programs and it's available space, the site chosen was the
University of Washington, Tacoma branch campus. This resulted in over 7 million dollars more in public and private money being spent on construction and historic renovation in the area. The Pinkerton Building, which was built in 1889 as a combination hotel and warehouse, added to the cache of historic preservation ofbuildings in the Union Station historic warehouse district. 20
19 The News Tribune, "Site plans for Tacoma UW Branch Complete", August 8, 1994 20 The News Tribune, "Hundreds welcome tech center, Institute ofTechnology", Oct 25,2001
14 "--"" In 2003 another 15 million dollars was given to the University by the Gary E.
Milgard, the Gary E. Milgard Family Foundation and James A. Milgard to establish a
scholarship program, " four additional faculty positions and to endow the school's
leadership positions that collectively support the Milgard School of Business. Dawn
Lucien played a major role in it all and matter-of-factly states:
I was President of South Puget Sound Higher Education Council the year that in 89 when the legislature agreed that we should have this branch campus. So that was a very exciting year and I have been on the Advisory Board every year which has been 22 or 23 years. I got to watch that thing grow from nothing, and reform the whole ofthe lower part of Pacific A venue from what was still a little part of a dicey area back in the 70's.
Through a lifetime of service, Dawn Lucien has served on many boards and held
many offices. As of June 1st, 2009 she is a board member of W orId Affairs Council, a
Venice as a Sister City Committee member, Co-Chair, of the UWT Chairman Legislative
Council, a participant in Tacoma Urban Waters Board, a Children's Museum Chair Public
Funds Committee member, Treasurer for Tacoma Angel Network, the President of Save
Our Bridge, Secretary of Tacoma Art Place, a member ofTacoma Rotary 8 and continues
to sit on the University ofWashington Tacoma Advisory Board. 21
It is no wonder that she has won lifetime and distinguished service awards from
Tacoma Municipal League, the Public Power Association, the Chamber of Commerce
and many others.
As a civic champion who has been through the ups and downs of economic
development she continues to look ahead when she says:
I just look forward to the future. I think we have exciting times ahead. I think we can take advantage of this down turn in the economy [in 2009] to focus on our co:mnlunity and make it a better place. I think people who
21 Dawn Lucien, biography submitted as appendix.
15 are finding that their employment is being diminished can work as volunteers in helping with community projects. I think we need the leadership from City Hall that will get people excited about doing that kind of thing. . .. I think that Tacoma is the most beautifully situated. When you look at the mountain and it comes out I get so excited. And it is surprising how often it does come out, when you are living where I do, where I see it every time it appears.
16