Biohazard Cleanup Near Alameda Park Fircrest, WA

Fircrest is a small residential city in Pierce County, bordered by Tacoma to the north and east and University Place to the west and south, covering just 1.58 square miles (ZIP code 98466).

The community began in 1907 as Regents Park, a planned development of the Narrows Land Company led by Edward Bowes — who later became famous as the host of the Major Bowes Amateur Hour radio talent show — with streets, sidewalks, and sewers installed before lots were sold.

To give the suburb an academic air, Bowes named many streets after universities, including Princeton, Dartmouth, Yale, Vassar, and Stanford, while others, such as Bowes Drive, honor the developers themselves.

Residents incorporated Fircrest on September 19, 1925, largely so the new city could take over and maintain the infrastructure the developers had built.

Fircrest was the last 'dry' municipality in Washington state, prohibiting the sale of alcohol by the glass until voters finally approved liquor sales in the November 2015 election.

The 2020 census counted 7,156 residents and 2,832 households in Fircrest, with 2,926 housing units packed into its square mile and a half.

Fircrest Park occupies the filled-in bed of the artificial Spring Lake; the city took control of its parks in 1959, opened its swimming pool in 1962, and replaced it with a new pool in 2021 and a new community center in 2022.

Unusually, the city of Tacoma owns an enclave entirely inside Fircrest — a wetland that forms the source of Leach Creek.

Most Fircrest students attend Tacoma Public Schools (Whittier Elementary, Wainwright Intermediate, and Foss High School), while the western portion feeds into the University Place School District and Curtis Senior High School; the city has used a council–manager government since 1988.