A few days ago I visited Heritage Bank on the corner of Military Road and Pacific Avenue. As President of the Spanaway Community Association, the new manager began talking about adding photos to the wall, depicting the history of Spanaway. I told her I would bring some in short order.

In the past couple of days, I have been looking through my old photos at all the scenes of Spanaway Park, the trolley from Tacoma, the history of the Bushalier Donation Land Claim, the purchase of the lake property by the city of Tacoma for a municipal water supply and the construction of Marymount. Spanaway is truly a unique and amazing community. Once a major playground for residents of Tacoma and Puyallup, Spanaway has grown out of control in population without strong vision for its unique future.

Just a few years ago, local author Jean Sensel released the book Spanaway through the series Images of America. If you haven’t read it, it is available through most resellers. It is great to know the roots of your community. Uniquely, Spanaway is all about roots as that is what the native word ‘Spanueh’ was about, digging roots.

For those of you who a relatively new here, welcome. We hope that you will find this a great place to put down your roots.