Deanna Dahlke has a photo of her dad, Robert, standing with his parents and sister behind the Wakefield Hotel in Puyallup.
He was in his teens when the photo was snapped in the early 1920s. By then, his family already had owned the hotel on Second Avenue Northeast for more than 10 years.
Robert is gone. The hotel is, too.
But the property still is in the family. Various members of the Dahlke family have owned it for 100 years, the family says.
“I think in this day and age, it’s hard to hold on to anything,” said Bob Dahlke, 57, of Puyallup, Robert’s son and Deanna’s brother. “People buy things and throw them away. This shows our roots in the valley and commitment to the city.”
Bob, Deanna and their spouses organized a picnic Sunday on the Wakefield land to mark the ownership milestone. About 30 relatives planned to attend, along with members of the Ezra Meeker Historical Society, which covers the greater Puyallup area.
The Dahlke siblings said they want their kids and grandkids to learn the property’s stories and history.
They’re also trying to cherish the land while they can; family members are wrestling with whether to sell.
To prepare for the picnic, the siblings pulled out dozens of black-and-white family snapshots, as well as some items they saved from the Wakefield – an old doorbell, a register in which guests signed their names.
“It’s been neat to go through it,” said Deanna Dahlke, 65, of Puyallup, on a recent evening, flipping through an old photo album. It held several pictures of the Wakefield.
The two-story hotel already was in business when Robert’s parents came along; it likely was built a year or two before Puyallup incorporated in 1890.
It was never fancy. Bob and Deanna described it as a “working man’s hotel” where train passengers, farm laborers and carnies working at the Puyallup Fair stayed while passing through.
It also had rooms designed for longer stays, with kitchen and sitting areas. Many tenants made the Wakefield their permanent home.
“It’s (the kind of place) that really doesn’t exist anymore,” said Duncan Johnson, Deanna’s husband. “There is no equivalent around here.”
Robert Dahlke’s parents planted vegetables and raised rabbits and chickens at the Wakefield. When Robert was growing up, the family lived on site, sharing the hotel’s communal bathtub and toilets with the tenants.
Robert’s parents died in the 1950s; Robert and his wife, Alma, took over the hotel.
They lived in a home nearby, dropping by the Wakefield regularly with their two kids.
Young Bob mowed the grass and helped with repairs.
“I slid down the banister,” Deanna recalled with a laugh.
Robert Dahlke eventually got into the real estate business and had an office next to the Wakefield. He died in 1972.
Five years later, the hotel – which had stopped being profitable – was torn down.
A 1977 story in the Pierce County Herald described it as the end of an era.
Today, the property belongs to Bob Dahlke and his wife, Laurie. It has grown to include two rental homes and a building that holds a hair salon.
The spot where the Wakefield stood is empty.
At one point, Bob and Laurie had development plans, but they stalled. The couple said it’s their dream to pass the place on to their kids, but the income generated by the rentals barely covers property taxes and maintenance.
“We’d love to be able to keep it in the family,” Laurie Dahlke said. “But we don’t know.”
For now, the Dahlkes are celebrating 100 years, pulling out photos, telling stories and reflecting on what the hotel and land have meant to their family.
“I used to hate to go over there and cut the grass,” Bob Dahlke said of the Wakefield. “But it taught me responsibility. It taught me a lot.”
Sara Schilling: 253-552-7058
sara.schilling@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/street
