By Tim Marsh, Lakes High Class of 1966
Some reading “Interim Lakewood Pierce County Library to open Thursday, Sept. 12” in the Sept. 9, 2024, Suburban Times and seeing the library’s 10202 Gravelly Lake Dr. S.W. address thought it familiar.
Isn’t that address across the street from Villa Plaza and at the corner of Gravelly Lake Drive & Alfaretta Street S.E.?
Yes.
And, it’s on the same side of the road and across (from Alfaretta Street) from Park Lodge School?
Yes.
Long, long (long) ago, before Lakewood had either a permanent or interim library, wasn’t there was a temporary Lakewood Library in the basement of old Park Lodge where Mrs. White had her kindergarten classroom?
Yes.
A story in the May 9, 1960, TNT/Tacoma News Tribune said Friends of the Lakes District Library sought “more adequate quarters for the Pierce County Library District’s Lakewood branch. It is temporarily housed in the basement of Park Lodge School.”
A May 31, 1959, TNT story said the basement location was “inadequate for the needs of both children and adults.”
And, the Nov. 18, 1960, TNT reported the “Lakewood Branch Library is a real press-into-service operation” and is “squeezed inside a school basement.” Librarian Marile Thomas noted that Brownie Girl Scout Troop 122 from Wildwood visited the library. During it a Brownie asked her, “Do all libraries look like this?”
Mrs. Thomas assured the Brownie, a second grade school student, that “most libraries were quite different from the one crammed into the depths of the Park Lodge School.”
Yet another TNT story quotes Mrs. Thomas as saying the June 1959 temporary Lakewood Library was “bulging at the seams.”
So, it’s “nailed” about the temporary library being housed in Park Lodge School. Now, let’s go back across Alfaretta Street to the location of the new (2024) interim Lakewood Library.
You might or might not remember there was a gas station/service station at that site.
An advertisement in a 2002 edition of the TNT said “Lakewood Chevron” was in its 70th year. That means a gas station/service station opened at that site in 1932. Was Park Lodge School next door?
Yes.
A 1997 TNT story said the original Park Lodge School was built in 1912. “It was constructed near a rail stop called Park Lodge Station” and sat on “prime rural property, near the lakes that gave the community its identity and surrounded by neighborhoods that gave it a good reputation.”
In the early 1920s – source the TNT, of course – an addition to the original Park Lodge School “near DeKoven Inn on Lake Steilacoom” was built at a cost of $10,000. The addition included a “full basement” which, we know now (2024), became home for the temporary Lakewood library.
While (old) Park Lodge School was next door to the Chevron Station, Villa Plaza was not across the street. That’s because it opened in 1957. However, Villa Plaza’s namesake, Visitation Villa was there.
The Visitation Villa Lakewood Historical Society Historical Marker says Visitation Villa (1923-1956) was a “Catholic girls school began shortly after the Sisters moved in on August 15, 1923 and operated until 1954. In May of 1956, construction began on the Villa Plaza Shopping Center which opened in 1957.”
Footnotes
Story mentions DeKoven Inn. It was, said an article in a 1981 TNT, “one of the most popular resorts in Western Washington.” A 1926 ad for the inn in the TNT invited dancing (9 p.m. to midnight) and dining with a full course chicken dinner at $1.50. Dinner parties were a specialty and banquets catered. Afternoon card parties and luncheons were offered. Playing every evening was the DeKoven Inn Orchestra. “For those who wish to dance only, (the cost of) admission (was) 50 cents couple.” DeKoven Inn phone number: Madison 126-R-3.
Posting with this article the following from the TNT/Tacoma News Tribune:
Finally
The Chevron station had a nice gumball machine. Put in a coin and you received not only a very good gumball, but also a nice metal ring to put around your finger. The gumball was in the ring hole.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
– At 8:15 am on 9/12/2024 Rex S. Hays posted at the 1966 Grads Clover Park /Lakes Facebook page this text: “De koven Service, predecessor to Bill Cooley’s Park Lodge Service. Owned by Finn Krogh, my great uncle. My great grandmother and older sister in the foreground, (Finn’s mother and Melinda Mckillip,(Hays).” And this photo.
– June 3, 1920, TNT/Tacoma News Tribune has a classified ad for transfer and express offered by AMERICAN LAKE AUTO FREIGHT, E. A. Krogh, Prop. So. Tacoma R. F. D. No. 1, Box 118, Madison 124-J-3.
– Dec. 30, 1924, TNT/Tacoma News Tribune, includes an ad showing that Dekoven Service Station/E. A. Krogh was among dealers in Tacoma and vicinity selling the “new winter Red Crown gasoline.”
June 20, 1926, Tacoma Daily Ledger with headline “SERVICE STATION MAN BUYS STUDE” ran a story with text reading: “E. A. Krogh of Steilacoom Lake has just joined the ranks of Studebaker owners through the purchase of a Studebaker standard sedan from the B. H. Kennedy company (on Broadway in Tacoma). Mr. Krogh is the proprietor of DeKoven service station at Steilacoom.”
March 23, 1930, Tacoma Daily Ledger has an ad about “All Tacoma … is talking about new Gilmour Blu-Green Gasoline.” Among independent service stations where the gasoline was sold was DeKoven Service Station, Gravelly Lake Blvd.”
May 10, 1935, TNT/Tacoma News Tribune classified ad is about a 2 & ½ ton truck with steel body, hydraulic hoist, “good rubber” being sold by DeKoven Service Station, Lakewood, 0168-J-3.
Research seems to indicate that at some point “Interlaaken Service Station” might have been the name of the gas station on Gravelly Lake Boulevard.
=Speaking of Finn Krogh=
The Feb. 3, 1965, TNT, reported on actions of the Pierce County Planning Commission. One of them regarded a “request by Finn Krogh for a zone change to allow for remodeling and expansion of an old service station.” It was OKed by the commission. “The property is located near Gravelly Lake Drive and Alfaretta Avenue in the Lakes district.”
Although I only came to this area in January 1980, I’m fascinated by such well-researched historical vignettes as this one! Well done!
Tim, thank you so much for telling everybody the real deal.
Some of us know, and assume that everybody else does, also but they do not.
Those brass plaques for the girls Catholic school are displayed on the outside brick wall of the current Safeway, but I highly doubt anyone sees or reads them at all.
I am very grateful and proud that you have put our local history out there especially since they have taken our “Tree” away.
Thank you again! Rock on!
P.S. Love the bit about the DeKoven Inn, too!!!
Our family arrived in Lakewood December 1962. The VIlla was so nice and family friendly with many good stores plus events in the summer. Traffic was minimal. People were so nice, natural beauty was everywhere to be discovered. It was home to roam no more.
The history of the library is interesting. I recall when Tenzler opened, such a lovely building in a gracious setting.
It’s been a real wrench to have left it after 60 years. Its nice to look back in time.
Thanks for the memories.
What a wealth of history you are sharing there, Tim! Thank you so very much!
Thanks TIm Marsh! I was born in Tacoma and lived in Lakewood until I was 8. Moved to Tacoma for about 10 years, then moved back to Lakewood.. I have lived here ever since. You confirm faint recollections I have of life in Lakewood in 1958-64.
Thanks for your research it is appreciated !
TIM MARSH,
THANK YOU for time and research, organizing memorable review and posting this keepsake. And your timing is equally masterful, with opening of Lakewood’s Interim Library this very day. On hand this morning when the doors opened, friends unseen for months showed up to to share the occasion. Strolling through, wish list in hand, I actually found and checked out two books blazing trails through obscure historical documentation that I would not have expected to find this side of Suzallo (UW) in Seattle. Amazing! Hats off to PCLS and Friends of the Lakewood Library for guiding us toward eventual recovery of a defining library surpassing the endearing Tenzler building we must leave behind.
Finding inclusion of Russell Garrison in your reminiscence was deeply satisfying. Over a lifetime of inspired creative endeavor, I can think of no one who contributed more with selfless joy. We will do well to remember him with cooperative spirit and re-kindle his vision and “can do” going forward in years to come.
Mr Marsh….many thanx for sharing your memories and examples of Lakewood as it “used to was”.
Your reminiscences remind me of the small town in Oregon (or OreWent for some folks) where my family grew up during the 1950’s…Lebanon, OR…including the cost of gas (with me paying 25-cents-a-gallon during the so-called gas-wars of the early 60’s).
There is a Facebook Page called “You Grew Up in Lebanon, Oregon if…” where any Lebanon-ite can put down their rememberances. It is the way we “stay connected”, even though some of us Lebanon-ites have found other places to settle down.
As to Lakewood, WA….we landed here in 1986 and have stayed since when I retired from the US of Army in 1987. My wife, Jen, and 2 sons (Kirk & Jason) stayed in WA as well. We all remember what Lakewood was like before and after it became a “city”….some good, but also some bad memories that.
Even so, we are proud to be citizens of Lakewood and essentially glad we came to make it our home….some really neat & good people here and are happy to finish our lives here in the marvelous outdoor opportunities that make this place so grand.
So….good sir…many thanx for helping our family get a more-perfect picture of “what used to was” for Lakewood, WA. Pretty neat place…………