Tacoma’s oldest existing building is a small wooden church with a once-famous cedar wood bell tower. Although the original bell tower has been removed, Old St. Peter’s Church still stands as a reminder of civic life in the pre-statehood American West. Old St. Peter’s Church dates back to 1873 and the decision to make Tacoma the endpoint of the Northern Pacific Railway. Many civic institutions were built around this time, and Rev. Benjamin W. Morris, the Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Oregon and of Washington Territory, paid the new…
