Proctor District

• Tacoma's only year-round farmers market runs here on Saturdays, at N 27th and N Proctor.
• Everything worth stopping for is within a block of one crossing, so you park or step off the bus once.
• It is a residential district that still has a working commercial core — coffee, groceries, dinner and a cinema on the same four blocks.
• It pairs naturally with Point Defiance: Pierce Transit Route 11 runs from downtown through Proctor to the ferry terminal.

Best for

A slow morning on foot

Time needed

Two to three hours

Getting around

Four walkable blocks

Market day

Saturday, year-round

Transit

Pierce Transit Route 11; no light rail

See this area on the map →

Start with a coffee at the corner of N 26th and N Proctor, then walk one block in each direction before you decide anything else. That is the whole district.

1. Saturday morning

   Coffee at the crossroads

   The corner cafe is where the district makes sense from — everything below it is within two minutes.

   See the place

2. Step 2

   Walk one block north to the market

   Tacoma's only year-round farmers market sets up at N 27th and N Proctor on Saturdays. Come on foot if you can.

3. Step 3

   Stock up at the grocery

   The hot bar and the deli counter make this the practical stop, and it opens early and closes late.

   See the place

4. Early evening

   Stay for pizza

   Neapolitan-style pizza in the middle of the Proctor blocks, and the reason to still be here at six.

   See the place

• Editorial Illustration

  Olympia Coffee - Proctor

  Coffee

  The corner cafe at the crossroads, and the place to orient yourself.

• Editorial Illustration

  Fondi Pizzeria Proctor

  Restaurants

  Neapolitan-style pizza in the middle of the Proctor blocks.

• Editorial Illustration

  Rosewood Café

  Restaurants

  A daytime cafe on the walk between Stadium District and Proctor.

• Editorial Illustration

  Metropolitan Market Proctor

  Shopping

  The grocery with a hot bar; open early and late when the rest of the district is not.

• Proctor morning circuit

  The four-block loop, timed for the Saturday market.

Proctor is about a ten-minute drive north-west of downtown. Pierce Transit Route 11 links Commerce Street Station in downtown to Proctor St N and N 24th St in both directions, continuing to the Point Defiance ferry terminal — which makes Proctor a sensible first stop on a Point Defiance day. There is no light rail service to Proctor, and we would not send you here by train. On Saturdays the market takes over N 27th at N Proctor, and arriving on foot or by bus is easier than circling for a space.

Open Proctor District on the full Tacoma map

• The Saturday market changes the shape of the district for the morning: the crossing is busy, and the four blocks read as one space rather than a street.
• Several businesses keep daytime-only hours — people live here, and the blocks wind down early.

• Tacoma neighborhood

  Old Town

• A Saturday morning in Proctor, market day
• The best coffee shops in Tacoma