Soon after it selected Tacoma as the terminus for its western line in 1873, the Northern Pacific Railroad formed a subsidiary, the Tacoma Land Company, to develop the city and sell the town lots. It was first incorporated as the Southern Improvement Company and immediately renamed the Tacoma Land Company.
The first president of the company was Charles Barstow Wright, an officer in the Northern Pacific Railroad who had been a member of the committee that selected Tacoma as the western terminus location. Fellow Northern Pacific officer Frederick Billings was vice-president, and John C. Ainsworth, owner of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, was third director. Wright, Billings and Ainsworth invested personally in Tacoma and were involved with the early development of the city.
Tacoma Land Company was reorganized in 1899 and renamed the Tacoma Land & Improvement Co. The Tacoma Land & Improvement Co. was dissolved in 1923.
These records are from the estate of former Tacoma Land Company vice-president Frederick Billings, who also served as president of the Northern Pacific Railroad from 1879 to 1881.
Includes articles of incorporation; correspondence; minutes of the Board of Trustees, Board of Directors, stockholders, and other committees; financial records including ledgers and stock registers; legal documents including deeds and resolutions, and reports to stockholders.
This collection is available for research.
Tacoma Land & Improvement Co. Records; MS-001; box [ ]; Northwest Room Special Collections, Tacoma Public Library, Tacoma, WA.
Gift of the estate of Frederick Billings through his granddaughter Mrs. John H. McDill of Woodstock, Vermont, 1971.
This collection is not processed. Preliminary inventory is available.
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