Freighthouse Square

The freight house went up in 1909 for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, the westernmost freight terminus of the Milwaukee Road. It ran 540 feet by 50 to start with, took passengers from 1911, and served as divisional headquarters for the railway's West Coast operations. The railway went bankrupt in 1977 and had walked away from its Pacific extension by 1980.

Keith Stone bought the shell and reopened it as a market in July 1987, with Baskets Etcetera, the Yum Yum Tree and Peggy's Cinnamon Rolls among the first tenants. It runs over a thousand feet through three city blocks, two blocks north of the Tacoma Dome, and has lately taken the name Freighthouse Marketplace.

Inside are Adela's Authentic Mexican, Little India, Marcellino Pizza, Paya Thai Fish and Chips, the Palace Kebab and Wendy's Pho, alongside candles, coins, pottery and a haunted house. Locals call it Tacoma's Pike Place Market. Its own website calls it an old building that needs a bath, which is fair and somehow makes the case better.