Wapato Park started as a picturesque retreat, helped put people back to work during the Great Depression and is now protected as a Tacoma landmark.
The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to add Wapato Park to the Tacoma Register of Historic Places after the Landmark Preservation Commission recommended the listing.
Although it joins more than 180 properties citywide, it is one of only six sites in South Tacoma.
“This shines a spotlight on one of South Tacoma’s amazing parks,” said Claire Keller-Scholz, Parks Tacoma historian and administrator of arts, heritage and culture. “Not only do we get to recognize the park as being a place for families to gather for well over 100 years, but we also get to tell the story of the Great Depression work relief programs that helped build up our parks to what we see today.”
Wapato Park has been a recreation hub since it was established in 1889 by R.F. Radebaugh, who built a home on 80 acres and purchased another 280 acres to develop into a publicly accessible resort.
The resort had a lake with a sandy beach, walking trails through the woods and summer houses for guests to rent.
Radebaugh sold much of the land in the 1890s due to financial difficulties. Though the park continued to be operated by private owners, it wasn’t a public park until the first parcel was donated to the Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma by Horace and Helen Scott in 1920. The District was eventually able to buy or have parcels transferred until the full shoreline was acquired.
The most dramatic park improvements came during the Great Depression. To put unemployed laborers back to work, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) laid out a park design in 1936.
They created three entrances with stone columns, two of which are still there. Crews also dredged 180,000 cubic yards of mud from Wapato Lake, and built the two-story pavilion often used by day camps.
Today, 88-acre Wapato Park has the most WPA environmental and infrastructure improvements in all of Tacoma. The park bears character from the original construction in its walking trails, covered picnic areas, Pergola, waterfall pond feature and stone entrance markers.
Improvements have also been made in recent decades. Little Wapato Lake was filled in to create a playfield in 1971, a playground came in 1977, a police substation began occupying the southeast corner in 2006 and capital improvements from the 2011-2014 bond brought in new fishing docks and replaced a baseball field with a dog park.
“Preserving this landmark is one of many ways Parks Tacoma celebrates the legacy of our parks and our sense of community pride,” said Park Board President Andrea Smith.
Parks Tacoma has nine sites on state or national registers of historical places, and four on the city’s list. Some places are included on more than one historic register. In addition to Wapato Park, the city’s list includes but is not limited to Fort Nisqually Living History Museum, Dickman Mill Head Saw and Titlow Lodge.
This historic designation may improve prospects for future grants and rehabilitation programs to improve Wapato Park.
