Diamond Head Apartments, Lacey, WA (apartments)

Name:Diamond Head Apartments
Type:apartments
Street:1510 College St.
City:Lacey
State:WA
Zip:98503
country:USA
Phone:
Status:operational

Description:
These apartments were built and operated in the mid 60's buy the same company that built at least five tropical/tiki complex's in the South Sound.

Like the Polynesian Village (Tacoma) and the Kona Kai (Auburn) it shares the same A-frame designed clubhouse/office.

I think this the entrance to the office. (I was wrong this is the front of the clubhouse)

The other side of the building, the clubhouse/pool side.

Looking over the fence you see the top of this tiki.

This is the other tiki from the grounds, both are cedar and look to be carved by the person who carved the tiki's at the Polynesian Village(Tacoma), Tiki (formerly Tongaroa apts. Tacoma) and the Kona Village in Bremerton.

These pics are from the web, I'll be going down there the next partly sunny day, hopefully sometime in the couple of weeks to look around and ask questions. From the photos on the net the grounds look pretty well maintained.

aloha, tikicoma

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2012-02-13 22:25 ]

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2012-02-13 23:24 ]

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2017-10-08 03:00 ]

It would be amazing if after all these years these Tikis actually still survived. And it is gratifying to see that 18 years after my Tacoma/Bremerton expedition and 12 years after I published some of my finds in the BOT...

....someone is picking up the lead and searching out unknown sites and histories. Tacoma is turning into a Tiki hotbed! :)

I'm a little late getting back to this but I did go to the Diamond Head apts in 2012 and a couple other times including last week. Unfortunately the undamaged tiki shown above had rotted at the base and was cut up with a chainsaw and sent to the dump. The tiki missing its jaw has been shortened and stuck back in the earth.

The tiki in the bush this week...

and in the same bush 5 years ago.

Another loss is the sign above the office.. I took this photo 5 years ago but now it also is gone.

The office and rec room are the same design as at the other complexes built by H. A. Briggs. There's a manager there who has been with them over 20 years who told me that in front of the office along the road there once were between 3 to 5 large tikis that also had rotten at the base and were removed. She said there may be photos from staff birthdays with them standing in front of them and she'll see if she can find any.

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2017-10-08 02:58 ]

Several years ago the office staff told me that there had been tikis out front and they looked for photos but didn't find any. But a couple months ago the local newspaper yielded on illustration from sometime around its opening...

I zoomed enlarged it a bit... notice the two stacked tikis on the right..

And zoomed in more to see the one on the left better...

These tiki carvings were all evidently carved by Art McKellips at Cheney Art Woodcarving Co. in Tacoma.

p.s. -Damn I forgot how big the images are now!

[ Edited by tikicoma on 2022-03-17 17:21:48 ]