Friday, May 11, 2007
A Sister Publication
You're aware that Steve Dunkelberger and I worked on a photo history of Lakewood. It's a pleasure to say that a similar book about South Tacoma is expected to come out later this year from the same publisher, Arcadia.
That's of great interest because South Tacoma and Lakewood obviously share a lot of history; both were largely "in the middle of nowhere" when Tacoma began to develop. For example, South Tacoma was the original, rural location of the Tacoma Country and Golf Club.
The photo on the cover, at right, came from the Tacoma School District. It's 1903. The principal of Edison Elementary is taking the staff and others for a sleigh ride.
Says author Darlyne Reiter: "An interesting tidbit I've found while researching images for this book is the number of photos that have snow in them. I can only attribute that to the fact that we don't have snow often, so lots of people take outdoor pictures when it happens."
She makes a good point about old photos. You will note that the aerial photo of Lakeview in the Lakewood history book is of the region covered in snow.
Anyway, we are all grateful to Darlyne for her work to preserve local history. These books are also part of a larger trend made possible by the publisher. If you have been in a bookstore lately, you will notice that Arcadia's sepia-tone covers are begining to cover more and more parts of the state; there's even a book about "Irish Seattle." Arcadia is great to work with as they cover all the up-front costs, which is unusual for a publication involving local history. You can see a listing of their books from Washington at the Arcadia Web site.
