This Stick-Style home was built in 1889 for John and Virginia Mason, (Nope,  she is not the “Virginia” of Virginia Mason Hospital, I checked.) John Mason was from Illinois and had enlisted with the Chicago Mercantile Battery of artillery at the start of the Civil War and served at Vicksburg under General Sherman.  He was later drafted into the military telegraph service.  After the war he returned to Chicago and worked in telegraph service, eventually becoming the chief dispatcher for the Wabash Rail Road line.  In 1888, Mr. Mason moved to Tacoma as the assistant superintendent  of the Northern Pacific Railway.  His wife, Virginia was an early suffragette, and helped make Washington one of the first four states to adopt women’s suffrage.  She was also influential in establishing Franke Toby Jones retirement home.