Tacoma Rose "Roots" Chapter 2

by Bruce Lind

Did you know that an article in the August 7, 1898 issue of the Tacoma Daily Ledger referred to Tacoma as the “City of Roses”?  Tacoma was not always known as the “City of Destiny”!

 Last month’s article really featured the early history of the rose in Tacoma and Pt. Defiance Park rather than the history of the Tacoma Rose Society.  The garden in Pt. Defiance we enjoy today was created for first bloom 1913.  It has, of course, been redone in the intervening years, but the basic “bones” of the 1913 garden remain in place.  Later in this piece I will mention some of the roses planted for the “grand opening” of George C. Hill’s masterpiece, but now let us spend some time on the early history of the Tacoma Rose Society.

 A newspaper article announcing the 1940 rose show claims that rose shows have actually been sponsored annually by the Tacoma Rose Society since 1910; but the Tacoma Rose Society was officially organized on March 14, 1911 in a meeting at the Tacoma Commercial Club on C Street.  The Society was incorporated under the laws of The State of Washington on May 3, 1913 and “its affairs were put into thorough business order.”  The first president of TRS was Carl Morissee.  He was succeeded by Herbert Hunt in 1913, and the society maintains a continuous list of Past Presidents to this day.

 The “City of Roses” had shows much earlier than 1910 – at least back to 1895 – but there were years when no group sponsored a rose show.  The first “official” TRS show was held in the State Armory Building on Friday and Saturday, June 23-24, 1911 with an attendance of about 5000. 

Early rose shows featured additional entertainment, often in the form of concerts by the Temple Orchestra under the direction of Anton Aasgard (undoubtedly a great Norwegian!).  The Armory was the venue for the first four TRS shows, but then (this should sound familiar) the society had to seek a new location for its show.  The fifth show was held at “The Glide Rink” on June 11-12, 1915.  The cause for the change was a threatened loss of federal funding for the State Armory if TRS had been allowed to have the show in the Armory in 1915. 

All in all 1915 was a tough year for roses as well as rose shows.  Bad weather forced postponement of the show by one week.  Growers who forced their blooms were upset, but “approximately 700 entries were filed and a most beautiful show resulted.… The Metropolitan Park Board’s beautiful display, under the direction of Supt. Hill, received unlimited praise from all.  The only blighting condition during the show was the extremely cool weather, but withal, the show was a distinct success, all things considered.”  Perhaps this praise is a bit faint, but I am sure the organizers were left with a sense of pride at being able to triumph over the elements. 

As you will note, cooperation between TRS and Metro Parks goes back nearly 90 years, and the ability to rise to a challenge in the face of adversity is part of our earliest heritage.  Fitting then that in this YOTR 2002 the Tacoma Rose Society and the Metropolitan Park District had such a marvelous event on March 9, 2002 in Superintendent Hill’s Rose Garden.

 I am in the process of tracing the rose varieties listed as being planted in that 1913 garden.  Virtually all of them are found in Modern Roses Eleven.  I am checking to see which varieties are still in commerce (my Combined Rose List for 2002 has not arrived as yet).  By the April meeting I should be able to have a list for those who are interested in this topic. 

Of course, some of the varieties planted remain readily available and are grown by many Old Rose enthusiasts.  La France, General MacArthur, General Jacqueminot, Mme. Caroline Testout, Frau Karl Drushki, Gruss An Teplitz, and Kaiserin Augusta Victoria all make their way to the show table each year in our District.  Many of the other varieties appear to be beautiful (based on pictures in older rose writings).  I plan to continue to work to produce documentation that is as complete as possible for these roses that play an historic role here in Tacoma.

 Much of my source material is from the files of the Tacoma Public Library.  Mary Gorden Beil of Bellevue (who, along with her husband Kenneth Beil, enters our rose show virtually every year) has also shared information with me.  Mary Beil’s father, Joseph Gordon, was president of TRS in 1927, was winning trophies in TRS shows as early as 1919, and won Queen of the TRS show with a Peace rose in 1949.  It has been great to have her support. 

In response to the article of last month I received a note from John and June Frost, longtime TRS supporters from Seattle.  It was great to hear that they are doing well in the 80’s and still have a garden of over 1000 roses. John sent me some TRS show schedules dating from the mid 1940’s to the early 1960’s.  You can bet you will be reading information from those in future articles.  As you can probably tell, I am enjoying this digging for TRS “Roots.”  You can help me by sharing information you have or by pointing me to people or sources I should be interviewing or investigating.  Let’s see where, together, we can follow our TRS family history.

Chapter 3 of Tacoma Rose "Roots"

Chapter 1 of Tacoma Rose "Roots"