Lakewood at 30: A Century in the Making

The City of Lakewood is about to celebrate its 30th birthday. That makes Lakewood sound like a ‘new kid’ among cities. Yet while Lakewood’s official identity came later in its life, Lakewood’s community roots go back at least a century.

How do we know that the community goes back at least a century? This month, I had the pleasure of attending a centennial in Lakewood. Formal 100th anniversaries are not common around here. But they will grow more common, as it was during the 1920s and 1930s that the community now known as Lakewood began to take shape. 

Boy Scout Troop 53 celebrated its 100th anniversary with a three-hour event that could only touch parts of the story of all these Scouts and the parents and community members who supported them. Its story is the story of Lakewood, so forgive me as we take a trip into Lakewood’s past, present and future.

“It’s a godsend that we’re still alive”

Every story needs some drama, and here’s ours: This Boy Scout troop barely made it to 97 years. The Troop had two dozen Scouts before the pandemic; during the pandemic, it nearly closed with three Scouts. Three years ago, you had to wonder if there would be a centennial. What a heart-breaking near miss in history that would have been, not to mention, of course, the cost to youth who could have been involved. 

We are, and will be, paying a price for what happened to youth activities during the pandemic. But that’s a topic beyond the scope of this column. What is interesting about Troop 53 is that it did survive the pandemic, thanks to community heroism. 

The scary thing of course is that it almost didn’t happen. Speaking for Troop 53, “It’s amazing that we’re still alive,” Carla Richards, a longtime Scout leader, told the crowd at Dr. Claudia Thomas Middle School. “It’s a godsend that we’re still alive.”

Richards was part of a small core group that helped recruit more Scouts and keep the group going. There are eight active Scouts. She told the community, “Look at all that you have done. Look at all you have done for the City of Lakewood and the wonderful citizens you have raised, and all that you are doing today. It’s amazing,” she told people in the crowd that included present Scouts and many graduates of Troop 53 and their families. I hesitate to start listing names for fear of omitting people, but the list includes current Lakewood City Council member Trestin Lauricella.

Back to the start of Lakewood

So where does this group fit into our history? Lakewood began as vacation homes around lakes and small commercial centers around rail stops. In the 1920s, people were starting to put up more permanent housing in and around what we now call Lakewood, in communities like Lake City and Lakeview and Interlaaken. Business executives prized their lakefront homes. One of them was Norton Clapp. 

Norton Clapp is also beyond the scope of this column, but the short version is that he had a sense of Lakewood as a community before most other people. He is most locally famous for the Lakewood Theatre and Lakewood Colonial Center, which still set a tone for how we think of Lakewood. 

I’ve always wondered what would have happened if Clapp had not been such a popular executive, and how he would have shaped Lakewood if he had stayed focused here. What actually happened is that he got very involved in Tacoma civic affairs, and then Seattle. He became one of the first five investors in a little thing called the Space Needle. Yes, the guy who built the Lakewood Theater steeple is the guy who helped create the Space Needle. He upsized.

One of Clapp’s passions was Boy Scouts. He had been a Scout where he’d grown up in Pasadena, Calif. Clapp supported the Scouts throughout his life and for decades was a member of the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America. He was president from 1971 to 1973.

One of his roles was to serve as troop leader of our own Troop 53, which was based then at one of the few schools in the area, Park Lodge.  He arrived here in 1929, and according to accounts, his first activities here were boating and Scouting; here’s a photo of him with Troop 53 in 1933: 

The ongoing story of the Lakes District turned Lakewood

If you had asked Clapp or one of his Scouts where they lived, they might have answered, “the lake district” or “the lakes district.” That’s how Lakewood was known when we were a very rural suburb of Tacoma. By the 1930s, they were capitalizing the name.

Clapp, at the same time he was leading these Scouts, was an early organizer of the “Lakes District Improvement Club.” The club, among other things, thought it was about time to maybe support a senior high school in the growing area. One of the ideas floated around was to join the Clover Park schools with schools in Steilacoom and Parkland, and maybe they could afford a senior high school! You can tell our population was just a bit less back then. 

Lakewood didn’t begin with cityhood. Lakewood began with people uniting around shared goals, working together, and laying the foundation for a community that continues to evolve. That spirit of community still defines Lakewood today. It’s that spirit that rescued Troop 53.

A century ago, Scouts and their supporters helped shape this place. Today, it’s our turn. The Lakes District is still evolving. History is not a spectator sport. History isn’t just something we look back on. 

History is something we create every day. What will Lakewood look like at its centennial in 2096? That’s up to all of us.