# Tacoma Armory

The 1900s drill hall on Yakima Avenue, now Tacoma Arts Live's home for markets, film tours and community events. A 20,000-square-foot parade floor and the Eleanor Roosevelt Room, hired out rather than programmed nightly.

Canonical URL: https://tacomairl.com/places/tacoma-armory/
Section: places
Area: Hilltop
Published: 2026-10-25
Last fact check: 2026-10-25
Status: Not marked closed; check official information
Location: Hilltop, Yakima Avenue
Address: 1001 S Yakima Ave, Suite 1, Tacoma, WA, 98405, US
Price: Varies by event. Some are free; ticketed shows are priced by the organiser.
Official information: https://tacomaartslive.org/venues/tacoma-armory/
Building: Not a daily drop-in venue. Open for performances, markets and rentals.
Tickets and rentals: Tacoma Arts Live, (253) 346-1723.

The Tacoma Armory is a brick drill hall on Yakima Avenue, the kind of building that reads as military architecture from the street: a long, crenellated roofline and a footprint built to move crowds.

Since 2022 it has been **Tacoma Arts Live's** permanent home, after the Roberson family gave the building to the organisation. It has no season of its own; it is a hall that hosts whatever fits: craft markets, film festival screenings, arts workshops, dance, community dinners.

## What is inside

The armory rents out a **20,000-square-foot parade floor**, the smaller **Eleanor Roosevelt Room**, studio spaces and offices. That mix is why the building can hold a Sunday market and a touring film festival in the same month.

Because it is a rental hall rather than a programmed venue, what you get depends entirely on who booked it. Check the organiser's listing — our [events calendar](https://tacomairl.com/calendar/) is the fastest place to see what is on — before turning up.

## Practical

There is no regular public open time. Ticketed events and markets set their own hours, and Tacoma Arts Live handles rentals and ticket questions on **(253) 346-1723**.

## Nearby

The armory is on the Hilltop edge of downtown, a walk from [Tacoma Art Museum](https://tacomairl.com/places/tam/) and the Pacific Avenue museums. For a full day out, pair a market here with the [Chihuly Bridge of Glass](https://tacomairl.com/places/chihuly-bridge-of-glass/) and [Museum of Glass](https://tacomairl.com/places/museum-of-glass/), or with the [Washington State History Museum](https://tacomairl.com/places/washington-state-history-museum/) if the weather has turned. Our [rainy Sunday guide](https://tacomairl.com/guides/rainy-sunday/) covers the indoor downtown loop.

Image: https://tacomairl.com/images/tacoma-armory.webp
Alt: A long red brick building with castle-like crenellations and a curved roofline behind street trees and parked trucks.
Image credit: Photo: Joe Mabel
Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tacoma,_WA_-_Armory_01.jpg
Image rights: CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
Photo details: https://tacomairl.com/photo-details/tacoma-armory/

## Sources

- [Tacoma Arts Live: Tacoma Armory ownership, spaces and address](https://tacomaartslive.org/venues/tacoma-armory/)