Pacific Mill / Pacific Coast Lumber Co. / Metcalf & Wade (1888-1898)

This is the last mill on our “tour” which must be included in the history; it was not on the waterfront between Old Town and the smelter, but just west of the smelter.

The Pacific Lumber Co. was built in 1888—the same time the smelter was going up right alongside. The executives were C. F. White and J. R. McDonald. The mill was to be managed by George E. Atkinson, who had left his managerial position at Hanson’s Tacoma Mill Co. to run the new Pacific Mill. Atkinson’s experience with the big Tacoma Mill Co. no doubt led the owners to feel that a mill should be built to outdo Hanson; Pacific’s main milling building was made just a few feet longer than Hanson’s 400 foot building.

Pacific had a multitude of saws and equipment—including a full facility for manufacturing shingles. A new feature (for this area) was the use of a band saw, instead of the common circular saw, used by all other mills of the time. The band saw left a smaller kerf, and did not waste so much wood.

Once under way, the mill turned out 45 million board feet of lumber within the first year; however, things would not continue to “boom” for this mill. By 1890, a shortage of timber caused Pacific to sit idle for some time, and by juggling executives, the mill tried to keep going full steam, but instead went bankrupt. In 1893, A. T. Prichard (of Puget Sound Shingle Co.) took up a lease on the mill—renamed “Pacific Coast Lumber Co.”. His plan was to turn out more shingles (from his two mills) than anyone else in the world. But the Great Depression of ’93 could not have come at a worse time.

Prichard’s world of shingles came crashing down by 1894, and the mill once again went into receivership. It sat until 1897, when shingle men Ralph Metcalf and Lawrence Wade leased the mill and it became Metcalf & Wade Co. In their first year, they turned out 75 million shingles! Then the end came; in March 1898, a fire broke out and within less than an hour the mill, wharf and all dry kilns were destroyed. Metcalf & Wade Co. stayed in Tacoma, but had mills away from this area. The smelter purchased their old burned out site in 1901, for expansion purposes. Pacific Mill (and successors) wanted to outdo the great Tacoma Mill Co.—but bad economic timing and fire put an end to it all.

Nerheim, J. N.. The History of Lumber Mills in Old Town. Tacoma, WA. Self-published, 2004.