The Puget Sound port city of Tacoma was founded in 1872 and experienced what author Rudyard Kipling described as “a boom of the boomiest” when the following year it was selected as the Pacific Northwest terminus of the transcontinental Northern Pacific Railway. After a brief downturn during the Panic of 1893, the city bounced back and by 1901 the Thea Foss waterway had emerged as an industrial hub, with new docks, grain terminals, warehouses, and maritime industries crowding the shoreline. During these periods of prosperity, many beautiful buildings were erected that still stand today, including the Elks Temple, Pantages Theater and the original City Hall building.

These decades also saw the emergence of Tacoma as a brewing town with two breweries forming in 1884: Diedrich Stegmann Brewery and the Puget Sound Brewing Company. The two merged in 1894 and became a major investor in a new brewery, Columbia, that would eventually become the famous Heidelberg Brewing Co, the first to produce canned beer in the Pacific Northwest. The city was not just a producer of beer, but a consumer as well, and by 1901 the population of 37,700 supported 95 bars.

Tacoma’s days as a major brewing city ended with 1979 closure of the Heidelberg brewery, but a healthy craft beer industry quickly emerged in its place, resurrecting Tacoma’s Historic Brewing district. Heidelberg even returned to the city eventually. In 2016, 7 Seas Brewing opened a craft brewery and taphouse in the historic Heidelberg brewery, and in 2021 brought back the iconic Heidelberg beer in the originally designed cans.

On a weekend visit to Tacoma, we got an opportunity to explore a sampling of the city’s industrial and brewery past and present. We stayed in the centrally-located Hotel Murano, in a room with sweeping views over Tacoma, Foss Waterway and Mt. Rainier.

That evening we strolled through downtown Tacoma to have dinner at McMenamins Elks Temple. McMenamins is a Pacific Northwest chain of brewpubs, restaurants, music venues and hotels, many in historic buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. We visited one of their pubs on last year’s trip to Portland.

In Tacoma, McMenamins recently renovated the historic Elks Temple, built in 1916 for the Fraternal Order of the Elks. McMenamins Elks Temple includes a 40-room hotel with 6 bars and restaurants, and even a “secret” bar, The Vault. We had a great dinner at their pub, then went off and found the “secret” entrance to The Vault, and afterwards continued exploring the rest of the remarkable building and its venues.

Before and after our visit to McMenamins Elks Temple, we took in some of the plentiful modern art and historic buildings in downtown Tacoma.

Thea Foss Waterway is no longer confined to industry, and now supports many pleasure craft marinas and a number of restaurants plus a pedestrian promenade. We walked along the waterway the following day to have lunch waterside at Rock the Dock Pub and Grill, reaching sea level from the stairs built along the north pier of the 1913 Murray Morgan Bridge. And we returned to the waterway on our final day for lunch at The Fish Peddler restaurant and fish market before heading back home to Seattle.

Next up was a walk along the historic Prairie Line Trail, following the route of the retired railroad tracks that once formed part of the Northern Pacific’s transcontinental railroad that so impacted Tacoma’s growth. The Prairie Line Trail connects the Thea Foss Waterway with Union Train Station, the University of Washington Tacoma, and the Historic Brewery District, and is full of art and sculptures celebrating Tacoma’s past.

And finally, we did toured Tacoma’s Historic Brewery District, where we sampled several delicious craft beers. (We’d actually started our craft beer tour the evening before with a stop at Otter Brewing in downtown Tacoma before visiting McMenamins Elks Temple). We visited E9, Sig, Black Fleet, and 7 Seas. We didn’t try their re-introduced Heidelberg though, as lagers aren’t really to our taste.