Comments Sent to Tacoma Planning about The MLK Subarea Plan

Part One: My Concerns About Ecology and About Historic Preservation in the MLK Subarea

Part Two: About Valhalla

Part Three: About Two Poems I Published That Include The Valhalla Hall)

Part One: My Concerns About Ecology and About Historic Preservation in the MLK Subarea

I use public transportation, walk, or since 1990, ride a bicycle. I have never owned a car. I am never-married and have no children.

I have done volunteer work since Autumn 2009 at the Scandinavian Immigrant Experience Archives at Pacific Lutheran University. Some records of the Valhalla and the Order of Runeberg are at Pacific Lutheran University, where the Scandinavian Immigrant Archives is developing an internet database, some are at the University of Washington Seattle, and some are at the Swedish-Finnish Historical Society at the Swedish Cultural Center in Seattle, which also has an internet database.

My own background includes The historic Valhalla Hall and First Lutheran Church. I am aware that a worthwhile project by Allen Renaissance is progressing at the historic Valhalla Hall. Allen Renaissance plans to refit the building interior to provide a very safe environment for older students from Tacoma Public Schools for continuing to act on creative projects outside of classes.

I have a B.A. in English Writing from the University of Washington Seattle, 1972, and an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, 1974. I published three full-length books in 1977, 1982, and 1985. I have had grants from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Guggenheim Foundation, and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. I write a blog, where I have linked some short prose work that has appeared on the internet in recent years.

About Valhalla

The Swedish Order of Valhalla originated in what is now Downtown Tacoma at an immigrant hostel called the Svea Hotel and Liquor Company in 1884. My Great-grandfather arrived in Tacoma in 1887. He was a member of Valhalla and later a member of the Order of Runeberg, a group of immigrants from Swedish-speaking Finland devoted to choral music. This choir originated at his home in 1913.

After meeting in various places, in 1905 Valhalla built its own hall on what is now King Boulevard.

In 1924, when the second site of First Lutheran Church burned to the ground in an electrical fire during a terrible autumn storm, First Lutheran's activities - Sunday School, morning services, and Confirmation classes, my mother a member - were held at Valhalla. I reflect that there was no conflict regarding alcohol because of Washington State Prohibition, which had begun in 1916. The third permanent site of First Lutheran Church was at 6th and I, the Church's present location.

My mother was a very special member of the lodge because for years she was the accompanist and the choir director. She later became their financial secretary.

My mother worked and performed as a talented piano player for fifteen years before she married.

The Order of Runeberg met in the second floor meeting room at the Valhalla Hall until 1969, when they changed to the Wild West Post, which was more accessible. According to a family story, shortly after I was born in 1948 my father went to the Valhalla Hall meeting room and announced my birth during a meeting. My own memories of the Valhalla Hall include helping with the kitchen committee during the Columbus Day storm in 1962, when I witnessed a window shattering across the street and falling in glittering pieces down to the sidewalk.

About Two Poems I Published That Include The Valhalla Hall

In Shelter, 1985, from Dagon Gate of Seattle and Port Townsend, I published "The Gord Family Orchestra", a poem about my mother's Scandinavian Dance Band, which performed at The Valhalla Hall. Later in the 1980s I published "Corsage", a poem about the Order of Runeberg, which met at Valhalla, in Ploughshares Magazine. This poem later appeared on the internet.