Old Town

• The whole commercial strip is one block long, so you can browse it properly in under an hour without a plan.
• It is the only district where a craft studio, a maker collective and a bottle shop sit inside two hundred metres of each other.
• The block opens directly onto the city end of Ruston Way, which turns a short browse into a two-mile shoreline walk.

Best for

A short browse and a shoreline walk

Time needed

Two to three hours

Getting around

One walkable block, then the waterfront path

Terrain

Steep between N 30th and the shoreline

Transit

Nearest verified stops about a mile away (Routes 11 and 10)

Parking

Outside the paid downtown zone

See this area on the map →

Start on the North 30th Street block and walk it end to end before you stop anywhere. It takes five minutes, and it is the only way to see how small and how complete the district is.

1. Afternoon

   Walk into the pottery studio first

   A working craft gallery on the block, and the stop that sets the tone for everything else on North 30th.

   See the place

2. Step 2

   Cross to the maker collective

   A small retail space stocking work by Tacoma makers, two doors along the same block.

   See the place

3. Step 3

   Pick up a bottle at the east end

   The bottle shop closes the block, and it is the last thing you pass before the street drops toward the water.

   See the place

4. Early evening

   Drop to the waterfront for an early dinner

   A seafood counter with deck seating at the city end of Ruston Way, downhill from the block. Turn north afterwards and the shoreline path runs for two miles.

   See the place

• Editorial Illustration

  Throwing Mud Gallery

  Shopping

  A working pottery studio and craft gallery, and the most hands-on stop on the block.

• Editorial Illustration

  Northern Fish Old Town

  Restaurants

  A seafood counter with over-water deck seating at the city end of Ruston Way.

• Editorial Illustration

  Grit City Made

  Shopping

  A retail collective stocking work by Tacoma makers, mid-block on North 30th.

• Editorial Illustration

  Tacoma Wine Merchants

  Shopping

  The bottle shop at the eastern end of the North 30th strip.

• Ruston Way shoreline

  Starts at the Old Town Dock, below the North 30th block, and runs the shoreline north.

Old Town sits about a mile north-west of downtown, below the North End bluff. The nearest scheduled stops are Pierce Transit Route 11 at Proctor St N and N 30th St, uphill and about a mile away, and Route 10 at Pearl St and N 30th St, roughly a mile west — so arriving by bus means a walk of about that distance. Driving is the more direct option, and Old Town lies outside the City's paid on-street parking boundaries, which end at Market Street downtown. The gradient between North 30th Street and the shoreline is steep: plan to come back up the same hill, or park at the bottom. The waterfront end of the district connects on foot to Ruston Way.

Open Old Town on the full Tacoma map

• Most of the block keeps daytime hours, and by evening it is only the waterfront end that is doing anything.
• The waterfront end of the district is the start of Ruston Way, not the separate town of Ruston, which is a further two miles north.

• Tacoma neighborhood

  Stadium District

• Tacoma neighborhood

  Proctor District

• Ruston Way: the complete guide
• Point Defiance Park: the complete guide