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DHistory
History · Fife

Fife’s post office opened in 1900

More historic than 9% of U.S. towns · #239 of 285 in Washington. What drives it

Most of Fife was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2000. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1941 on, and the census since 1960.

1900first post office
0on the National Register
3%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
2famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Fife’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Fife began

When was Fife founded?

1900

The Fife post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 1,463 in 19602020 census: 10,999126 years

How historic is Fife?

D

More historic than 9% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Fife post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Fife’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Fife is more historic than 9% of U.S. towns, #239 of 285 in Washington. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.

D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Fife’s overall grade.
Founding era1900, from the first post office: founded 1900–1944, an older era than 9% of U.S. townsDHomes built before 19402.9% of homes (±1.8) · typical WA town 4.3% · U.S. 8.4%C−National RegisterNo listings counted · typical WA town 0.1 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 9%
NewerOlder
Washington towns of 2,500+ (285)Ahead of 16%

Few Washington towns list much on the Register (a typical Washington town has 0.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Fife’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (27% of Washington towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would still be D. The pre-1940 share (±1.8 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.

Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Fife’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages4 hamlets and corners are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Fife’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Fife’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewReservation Yard: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices and old corners

Fife had its own post office from 1900 to 1903.

Fife
1900–1903
19001960today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Ardenia Gale Mobile Home ParkCherrywood Mobile Home Manor Sewage Treatment PlantHylebos Creek Mobile Home ParkTacoma Junction

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story

How Fife came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Fife.

Read it all →

The lower Puyallup basin is the ancestral home of the Puyallup people, who were relocated after the signing of the Medicine Creek Treaty in 1854. The treaty ceded Puyallup lands and created the Puyallup Indian Reservation, which was expanded to include modern-day Fife. The land on which the city sits was lost after the signing of the General Allotment Act in 1887 and other land transfers that were later resolved in a 1990 claims settlement.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Fife in 1927

Passages that mention Fife, cut from the printed page as they were published.

1895, he came to Tacoma, Washington, and built a greenhouse on Eleventh street, which he operated for two years and then sold. He then bought ten acres of land two miles east of the city limits, cleared off a part of it and lived there two years, after which he sold it and bought five acres of land…
History of Pierce County Washington1927 · page 141Read the page →
Read the text

1895, he came to Tacoma, Washington, and built a greenhouse on Eleventh street, which he operated for two years and then sold. He then bought ten acres of land two miles east of the city limits, cleared off a part of it and lived there two years, after which he sold it and bought five acres of land one mile west of Fife, which he finished clearing. Here he built greenhouses and was engaged in the florist business until 1906, when he sold the property and, moving to Fife, bought ten and two-thirds acres, which he improved with a residence and greenhouses. He operated that place until 1919, then sold out there and bought twenty-four acres of timber and swamp

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Fife, 1899 to 1997

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1899In the archiveReservation Yard
  3. 20th century
  4. 1900Post officeThe Fife post office opens
  5. 1903Post officeThe Fife post office closes
  6. 1941On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  7. 1952Born hereMark Emmert is born here
  8. 1987In the archivePick-Quick Burger sign
  9. 1997Born hereLorenzo Ramos is born here
By decade

Fife, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1890s1 item
Reservation Yard1899Reservation Yard
1900s–1970snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
1980s1 item
Pick-Quick Burger sign1987Pick-Quick Burger sign
1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today16 recent
Union Pacific 844 Drive Wheels2007Union Pacific 844 Drive WheelsUnion Pacific 844 Controls - 22007Union Pacific 844 Controls - 2UP Train Bellows2007UP Train BellowsUP 844 Pistons2007UP 844 PistonsUP 1996 in Fife 20072007UP 1996 in Fife 2007Train Telephone Connections2007Train Telephone ConnectionsThe Brakes are On Southern Pacific 44492007The Brakes are On Southern Pacific 4449Steam SP4449 in Fife 20072007Steam SP4449 in Fife 2007SP4449 Daylight Running Fife 20072007SP4449 Daylight Running Fife 2007Railway Express Agency Fife 20072007Railway Express Agency Fife 2007Dome Car Fife 20072007Dome Car Fife 2007Daylight Drive Wheels2007Daylight Drive WheelsDaylight Controls Southern Pacific 44492007Daylight Controls Southern Pacific 4449Controls of the UP8442007Controls of the UP844Big Spring Southern Pacific 44492007Big Spring Southern Pacific 4449Art Lockman Fife 20072007Art Lockman Fife 2007
On the map

Fife on the map, 1941 to 1997

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fife. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Fife on the 1941 USGS mapFife on the 1961 USGS mapFife on the 1973 USGS mapFife on the 1981 USGS mapFife on the 1997 USGS map1941Tacoma South sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Fife.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Reservation Yard
Retake this viewReservation Yard, 1899

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Fife’s page.

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Fife, census by census

02,0004,0006,0008,00010,00012,000196019802000202010,999

Grew from 1,463 people in 1960 to 10,999 in 2020, 7 times over.

7 censuses, 1960–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Fife’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

2 famous people were born in Fife

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
L
Lorenzo RamosAmerican soccer player · b. 1997
Mark Emmert5th president of the National Collegiate Athlet… · b. 1952
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Tacoma92 historic placesA−Fife HeightsIts storyC−EdgewoodIts storyC−MiltonIts storyDPuyallup4 historic placesB−WallerIts storyC

Questions about Fife’s history

What year was Fife founded?

The Fife post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Fife rank for history?

Fife is more historic than 9% of U.S. towns, #239 of 285 in Washington. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

How old are the homes in Fife?

3% of Fife’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.8 points), against a typical 4.3% for a Washington town; the median home was built in 2000.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

From Wikimedia Commons (18), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.