Central Pierce Fire and Rescue teams have been training there for a couple of weeks, smashing windows and doors, chopping their way through roofs and walls and gutting ceilings. The North side of Garfield Street from the corner at C Street to Western Auto has chain link fencing around it and includes the single story wing on the Parkland School. All have been hacked and smashed in the CPFR training,
Next week the area is to be demolished to make way for the new Garfield Station Development which is scheduled to be open for occupancy in the Fall of 2014.
This block contains some fairly old buildings including the old Johnson General Store. Thursday, August 22 we took a few photos.
Kelly Johnson of Parkland commented, “I was talking with one of our teachers, Kurt Scearce, who also grew up in this area. He said there are a lot of old timers who are pretty upset about the demolition of the old Johnson Grocery. It’s been there for a very long time, and one of the anecdotes he told me was that during the Depression, the owners of the store gave credit to the faculty and other employees of PLC (Pacific Lutheran College) so they could buy food. ”
Discover Parkland wrote a great story on the historical buildings about to be demolished.
Here is a letter the Pierce Prairie Post received today:
Dear Neighbor,
Korsmo Construction, Inc. and its subcontractor will begin the demolition of the buildings along Garfield Street from 301 to 325 Garfield Street the week of August 26th with completion scheduled by the end of the following week. The work will be performed during the hours of 7:00 am to 6:00 pm and may vary during this time.
We are making every effort to reduce the impact on your business; however, the vehicles and equipment required may impact some on street parking. We do not expect to obstruct traffic for any length of time other than to access the site. However, there may be increased noise levels due to operating heavy equipment on site. Additionally, some signage and bright temporary fencing will be placed on or near the site for notification and safety purposes.
We thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation. Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the Project Manager or onsite Project Superintendent listed below.
Dan Wombacher
Project Superintendent
Korsmo Construction, Inc.
#253-279-7026
Pierce Prairie Post 
Thank you Pierceprairpost.
It’s a shame they have to destroy the old store rather than move it to PLU property and have a Parkland pioneer museum.
What a wonderful idea, Rick! I wish those in charge had as much foresight.
This demolition project really saddens me and brings back such great memories of growing up in Parkland. We lived on 107th street and took the bus to Garfield Street to go shoppng for shoes at “Soines” especially for first day of school. It’s hard to remember which stores were there but to me, it was the next best thing to going all the way to downtown Tacoma. Great memories of “downtown Parkland” in the 50’s.