1914 Pagoda and 760 Acres of Tacoma Waterfront
5400 N Pearl Street, Tacoma, WA 98407
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Park entry is free. The zoo, aquarium, and Pagoda rentals have separate fees.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved roads and trails through forested park; some unpaved beach access at Owen Beach.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1914 · National Register of Historic Places · Original Streetcar Terminus · 17th-Century Japanese Architectural Influence
Point Defiance was set aside by the federal government in 1888 and transferred to the City of Tacoma in 1905. The site occupies the northern tip of the peninsula that separates Commencement Bay from the main body of Puget Sound, and remains one of the largest urban parks in the United States at roughly 760 acres.
The Pagoda was constructed in 1914 as a passenger waiting station for the Tacoma Railway and Power Company's streetcar line. Architect Frederick Heath designed the building in a style inspired by 17th-century Japanese architecture, with sweeping eaves and a sheltered porch that opened toward Five Mile Drive. The original interior included a heated waiting room, a first-aid station, and marble restrooms staffed by attendants who provided towels during summer.
The streetcar line ceased operation on April 8, 1938. The building was converted to a bus terminus and remained in transit use until 1962. A local garden club then converted the structure into a community gathering and event-rental space, and a Japanese garden was installed adjacent to it.
The Pagoda was severely damaged by a pre-dawn fire on April 15, 2011. Reconstruction preserved as much of the original structure as possible, and the building reopened in January 2013. It is now used primarily as a wedding and event venue.
Sources
The Pagoda is the focus of Point Defiance's paranormal lore. Reports from park staff, event attendees, and Tacoma Police officers describe the sound of hard-soled shoes walking inside the building after closing, particularly descending the stairs on the east side before stopping abruptly. Sighs have been reported in empty rooms, and the lower-level storage area below the main floor is consistently described as cold even on warm days.
The ghost story attached to these reports involves a young husband from the 1920s, said to have ridden the streetcar with his wife each morning so she could take a launch from the nearby Boathouse to visit her parents on Vashon Island. According to the legend, on one trip the launch took on water within sight of the Pagoda; the husband watched through a pocket spyglass as his wife was thrown into the Sound and drowned in her heavy period clothing. He is said to have walked into the marble restrooms below the building and shot himself. Independent historical verification of the specific incident is thin, and the story should be treated as park folklore rather than documented history.
Five Mile Drive, the loop road through Point Defiance, is also referenced in regional ghostlore. The 1986 disappearance and murder of fourteen-year-old Jennifer Bastian, whose body was discovered in the park, is sometimes invoked by visitors who report unexplained encounters along the road. Hauntbound notes Bastian's case here only because it appears repeatedly in regional sources; we treat it as documented crime history rather than paranormal narrative.
Drive or walk the 5-mile loop through old-growth forest along the Puget Sound bluffs, visit the 1914 Pagoda at the north end, and continue to Owen Beach. The park covers 760 acres at the tip of the Tacoma peninsula.
View the 1914 Pagoda from the exterior. The building, originally a streetcar terminus designed in 17th-century Japanese style, is now an event-rental space and is not generally open for casual interior visits.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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