West End

For some people, living on a hill is a non-starter. But for Realtor Tom Hume of Windermere Professional Partners, who has sold properties in his home of the West End of Tacoma for several years, the neighborhood’s hills present a daily chance for picturesque exercise – a rare find near Seattle. “This is a hillside where pretty much all up and down you get western exposure,” says Hume “So, if you like afternoon sunshine, or gardening, or sunsets, it's a great place for that.”

The hillside community of West End slopes up from the shores of the Tacoma Narrows, sweeping east until it meets its edges along Highway 16 and South 19th Street. The gridiron of residential streets wraps around Tacoma Community College in the heart of the neighborhood and extends outward before splintering off into tree-covered cul-de-sacs as one approaches the water. Mid-century architecture is popular in the West End. “In Tacoma’s older, more historic neighborhoods, you've got some cool Craftsman and Foursquares, but you walk in, and they tend to be 100 years old,” says Hume. “Not everybody wants that kind of character, but the mid-century homes we have in the West End are all just really solid.” This leaves behind a wide range of prices and designs, from smallish town houses selling around $370,000 to larger Prairie homes selling above $1 million, but the median for a single-family home is around $630,000.

Schools in the West End receive generally positive reviews. Students begin their education at Geiger Montessori School, which scores a B-minus from Niche and a 7-of-10 from GreatSchools. Hunt Middle School comes next, which GreatSchools rates as a 7-of-10 overall and 9-of-10 for student performance. Finally, Foss High School earns a C-plus from Niche. It is the only public high school in Tacoma to offer an International Baccalaureate program to students, allowing them to prepare for college and careers through advanced courses.

Thanks to a major connection point, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and multiple highways nearby, an outdoorsy resident of the West End could reach Olympic National Park by car in under two hours. “I think the coolest thing about living in this area is the fact that you can go from the water to the mountains and it's not a Herculean task to do so,” says Hume. For those who would rather stay in the area, the West End has several neighborhood parks to frequent. Titlow Beach allows visitors to spread out on the shoreline and watch cars zoom across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the distance. On hot days, they head over to the park’s splash pad after a tense basketball or tennis match. To the east end of town, the China Lake Nature Area offers a more secluded outdoor experience. The 31 acres of undeveloped evergreen forest beckons hikers with a path that encircles the park’s namesake lake, one of the largest in Tacoma city limits.

The West End is also home to many other weekend activities that don’t require a coat of bug spray. Where South 19th Street meets the shore, a waterfront district could be where you spend the afternoon sipping craft beer at Narrows Brewing Company or slurping clam chowder on the deck at Boathouse 19. For a no-frills morning pick-me-up, Hume swears by the coffee at Valhalla Coffee Company just outside of the neighborhood on 6th Avenue, but there are a couple of coffee shops directly in the neighborhood as well. When you’re looking for a home-cooked meal, a WinCo Foods and Grocery Outlet are both in the neighborhood and a Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s just over a mile south of the West End in University Place. And for the parents of young children, an easy fix to a rainy day can be found at an indoor trampoline park, Defy Tacoma, right in the heart of the neighborhood.

Written By

Tom Jakob

Photography Contributed By

Kristinah Archer

Video By

Melinda Anselmo