The 2024 Tacoma T-Dome City Services Expo, held on November 1-2, 2024, was a vibrant, family-friendly event at the Tacoma Dome. Organized by the City of Tacoma, Tacoma Public Schools, and Korsmo Construction, the expo offered residents a unique opportunity to interact with various city departments, explore career opportunities, and participate in engaging hands-on activities. The event featured a new "Truck-Or-Treat" activity, where attendees could enjoy trick-or-treating while exploring vehicles from different city departments.
The Northwest Room of the Tacoma Public Library brought two detailed displays to the event. One showcased the history of both the Tacoma Dome and the area on which it was built. Originally Puyallup tribal land, the site eventually became the Hawthorne neighborhood. In the early 1970s, Mayor Mike Parker proposed bringing a world’s fair to Tacoma. While that plan did not materialize, the idea of a multi-use arena for concerts and sports did. The Hawthorne area was chosen for its proximity to the freeway, despite some residents' pushback against their displacement. Lawsuits were filed, and attempts were made to halt the demolition and removal of homes. Ultimately, the city prevailed, and groundbreaking and construction for the dome began in 1981. The Tacoma Dome was completed and opened in 1983 to an excited public. The material for this exhibit come from our collections such as, Mayor Mike Parker's Papers, the Jacki Skaught Papers, Christopher Petrich Photographs, and our clipping files on the Tacoma Dome and the Hawthorne neighborhood.
The Northwest Room's second exhibit was put together by Heather Lowcock, who is working with the Northwest Room on a grant project to digitize and make available the Tacoma News Tribune Photo Files. The photograph files span over 100 years of the newspaper’s history and includes thousands of images, news clippings, negatives and photographic zinc plates, and TNT-designed graphics arranged by subject, people, and sports. Often documenting the Tacoma region, the images highlight changes to local industries, the rise of urban development and displacement, and the societal impact of collective action. For this exhibit, photographs were selected to present voices of demonstration across industries, identities, ages, and perspectives. One image depicts a Boeing Machinist’s strike in 1989, another, a counter-protest for reproductive and gay rights during a Moral Majority rally in 1981. Still more show a student-led march for racial diversity in 1991, a Tacoma School District teacher’s strike in 1974, a 1980 protest of the misrepresentation of Indigenous history in the book Hanta Yo, and direct-action demonstrations by Earth First environmental group in 1987. From labor rights and racial equality to climate change and personal freedom, these images speak out from their time and into the present day.
This event allowed residents to connect with their city's history and discover the rich resources available through the Tacoma Public Library's Northwest Room.
