Arts & Entertainment Community Environment
Two In Tow & On The Go: Tacoma’s Franklin Park has Gig Harbor ties
Franklin Park in Tacoma has all the makings of a fantastic kiddo destination … slides, swings, and an unexpected Gig Harbor connection. (That’s a prerequisite on what’s considered cool, right?). Plus, Clara and Wyatt have already asked to go back.
They’re not the only ones in love with this park. Since its 1941 grand opening, the parkgrounds, tucked into a residential neighborhood at 1201 S. Puget Sound Ave. less than two miles from Cheney Stadium, have long embodied the age-old sentiment of letting kids be kids. That’s because before Franklin Park became what it is today, the site was known for something else: a hidden gem within a forest of second-growth trees.
That gem was Hoodlum Lake, a secret swimming hole popular with the settler crowd in the late 1800s before Washington even became a state. When the days were long and children were free to roam, they splashed in its waters, fished bass in its depths, and, if winter allowed, skated on its icy top. Fond memories of the wildland lake – once a several miles’ walk from town – lived on in the hearts of Tacomans who likened their lake days with a quintessential childhood, even as the city grew up around them.
The News Tribune, June 18, 1926 | A group of children are playing on the edge of their favorite lake.
In fact, in a 1926 edition of the Tacoma News Tribune, reporter Elliott Metcalf wrote:
“‘Hoodlum’ lake is dear to the hearts of the children. For years, this small body of water, situated at about South 14th Street and Puget Sound Avenue, has heard the happy voices of youngsters upon its shores. No one specific spot has held the charm that “Hoodlum” lake, now known by the more dignified name of Franklin Lake, has. There are grown men of today whose hair has turned silver. They learned to swim in “Hoodlum” lake. They enjoyed untold hours of pleasure there. Men high in standing in this and other communities have ‘swam to the island,’ picked wild crabapples, and “chewed raw beef” at that spot. Hundreds of men who learned to swim in ‘Hoodlum’ now have children of 
their own. Only the old-timers can stand there, close their eyes, and bring back the old surroundings. But ‘Hoodlum’ lake, or if you please, Franklin lake, is just the same. The island is still there, and the same dip in the shoreline remains. Man has failed to change the contour of the lake—perhaps he has not tried. Let’s hope he never does.”
Changing times
For three decades after the park opened, the lake remained, shifting to the name “Franklin Lake” from its ‘ol Hoodlum days.
Today, the lake is gone. In 1969, the park district drained Franklin Lake and filled it in with dirt after a neighbor expressed concerns over water safety. Many in the neighborhood lamented its loss.
But the site remains a community staple with its playground, splash pad, expansive community garden, ballfield, grassy space galore, sports courts and a summertime playtime/lunch program through Metro Parks Tacoma. Locals have come to count on the park as a gathering place throughout the years — as a spot to walk the paths, and as a spot for kids to burn off energy.
The park’s origins
The story of how Franklin Park came to be dates back to 1909 (and, further still — but I’ll get there in a minute) to when a former park board commissioner donated two lots to the Franklin Elementary School next door.
That man, William Seymour, wanted children to have a school, but also an outdoor space to learn about flora. Plant life was something he enjoyed a great deal. Afterall, he’s the same guy behind the name at nearby Wright Park’s W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory.
Rallying supporters
With the land donated, the community just needed to rally supporters to get the park project going. When locals began fundraising for park construction costs in the 1930s, the lake boys, now fathers and grandfathers, looked back at the site with fondness. Many of them helped fund the project as the site inched closer to the public park we know today.
Franklin Park grew into a vibrant community space, with improvements and additions continuing over the years. A wading pool was added in 1949, which became a summer hit for local kids. The park also hosted various sports leagues, including a brief stint of nighttime fastpitch softball games in the 1940s—until neighbors got fed up with the lights and noise, forcing the city to remove the towering lights in 1950.
The Tacoma Daily Ledger, Sept. 9, 1935.
And now – that Gig Harbor connection
In May 1884, about two years before they moved to Gig Harbor, the Burnham family — the same one credited filing the original plat for “Gig Harbor City” a few years later — bought a house next to Central School on 11th Street in New Tacoma, news reports show. The story goes that their kids, brothers Biz and Nick Burnham, stumbled upon the lake while they were hunting grouse (small game birds with funny feathered legs and short, rounded wings). They told all their friends about the secluded lake, deep in the forest. The secret swim spot was an instant hit.
An interview in the fall of 1935 revealed some additional intel on the matter in the Tacoma Daily Ledger:
“… Captain “Biz” Burnham with his brother “Nick” and several other kids from the old Central school were grouse hunting and nestled in the deep woods (when) they (found) this lake. The lake immediately became their swimming hole. One of the discoverers performed the marvelous feat of diving and swimming underwater the width of the lake. “It has been a long time since I have been out in that latitude” Captain Burnham admits. “But I understand things have changed around there. The streets are paved and otherwise all built up in there where we used to hunt ‘hooters.’” (Yes, yes. Take a moment to giggle. I’ll wait.)
While I don’t know anything about Tacoma grouse from the 1800s, I did read that seasonally, male grouse in Alaska give a loud hoot from the treetops, “calling females far and wide,” according to a May 2015 article from the Alaska Department of Fish & Game.
Source: Northwest Room at The Tacoma Public Library, Richards Studio A6018-3 A6018-3. Future park site for Franklin Park in South Tacoma, circa 1937. View from hill looking across valley and toward the former Hoodlum Lake.
Hoodlum Lake filled
In the 1960s, a news reporter wrote:
“It was nearly 50 years ago that the residents of the Franklin district saw in the tree-filled, brushy hollow, once covered by Hoodlum Lake, that favorite old swimming hole for two generations of Tacomans, a playground for their children.”
Alas, Hoodlum Lake was eventually filled, its creek diverted, and the swimming hole is no longer part of the landscape. But the spirit of fun, community, and childhood adventure still thrives at Franklin Park with lots to do — and a seasonal sprayground as its modern day water feature. Perhaps as a throwback to the good ‘ol days.
A map drawn and displayed at Franklin Park’s playground program building, 2024.
If you go
Senator Rosa Franklin Park
metroparkstacoma.org/place/franklin-park
1201 S Puget Sound Ave
Tacoma, WA 98405
@two.n.tow
Tonya Strickland is a Gig Harbor mom-of-two and longtime journalist. Now in the travel and family niche, her blog, Two in Tow & On the Go, was named among the 10 Seattle-Area Instagram Accounts to Follow by ParentMap magazine. Tonya and her husband Bowen moved to Gig Harbor from California with their two kids, Clara (10) and Wyatt (8) in 2021. Find them on Facebook for all the kid-friendly places in and around town.