On October 19th, Ghostly Activities hung out in Tacoma and explored 2 iconic buildings, Urban Grace Church and Blackwell Mansion. See our photo galleries after the jump.

Tacoma’s Iconic Destinations

For this adventure, we booked 2 tours from Pretty Gritty Tours (note: we bought these 2 events with our money). The first stop was the Urban Grace Church (formerly First Baptist Church) on Market Street in the downtown core.

I didn’t know much about the building, and (spoiler alert) no one has died in the building.

Pretty Gritty Tours (Chris Staudinger) led us from top-to-bottom with plenty of stops for pics and a whole lotta architectural history in between. It was a fun tour. Check out the pics below.

Urban Grace Church Image Gallery

Blackwell Mansion Adventure

After the church, we stopped by a (haunted) restaurant and did some antique shopping. That’s where Jake bought a vintage 8mm video camera for his collection. Luckily, Melissa did some persuading, and we may get to investigate an infamous antique mall.

Inside The Haunted Antique Shop

This strip of Tacoma (along Broadway between 9th and 7th) was part of Chinatown. It burned to the ground after the mayor forced out the Chinese migrants in 1885. Needless to say, there’s some dark history to explore. More on that for a later post.

Back to the Blackwell Mansion tour …

Again, we had Pretty Gritty Tour’s Chris Staudinger show us around the Blackwell Mansion. He confirmed 3 deaths in the building (a head maid, Ruby Blackwell and William Blackwell), and then showed us the most active spots in the building.

Ghostly Activities will investigate the mansion in early 2025.

Blackwell Mansion Image Gallery

Pretty Gritty Tours put on great tours in both cases, and we’d recommend their tours. What I like about them is there commitment to fact, the real history, and calling out the urban legends. They don’t shy away from ghostly residents, and they add the fact check to the legends.

Last Updated on October 20, 2024 by Jacob Rice