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Mount Rainier is a city
of contrasts. Known as a busy urban gateway to the nation’s
capital, it is also known for its intimate, tree-shaded
neighborhoods. Mount Rainier’s greatest asset—the source of its
vibrant community life—is its ability to nurture and sustain a
variety of interests.
Old and new, progressive and conservative, Bible-belt
fundamentalists, rock-ribbed traditionalists, activists,
recluses, empty nesters, and young families: all are at home in
Mount Rainier. Patterns of civic behavior established early in
the city’s 100-year history laid a foundation of tolerance that
persists to this day.
Successive generations of government workers, tradespeople,
artisans, and service professionals have lived in the one- and
two-story bungalows built by the first Mount Rainier families.
They inherited, too, a small-town infrastructure, complete with
retail stores, churches, schools, and narrow streets.
Decades-old elm trees dominate the neighborhoods, where cozy
front porches vie with well-traveled sidewalks as venues for
good conversation.
With most of its buildings built prior to 1939 and in good
enough shape to be considered, in preservationist terminology,
“contributing resources,” Mount Rainier was named to the
National Register of Historic Places in 1990. Visitors are not
surprised. The city looks and feels like the old trolley town
that it is. But when newcomers are drawn into the life of the
city, they quickly realize that it is well endowed to thrive in
the 21st century. Mount Rainier’s enduring embrace of its
institutions and its people is only enhanced by the passage of
time.
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