Tacoma Silent Trees: Kwanzan Cherry Tree Speaks on North Eighth
“I have watched the shade beneath me hold families as they push swings, my petals drift to lawns where porch light and content sighs mingle,” says the Kwanzan cherry tree on North Eighth Street between North Alder and North Cedar in North Tacoma. “I’ve seen Victorian frames and bungalow hearts refreshed and loved again. I’ve felt the pulse of a neighborhood that refuses demolition, that chooses memory over replacement, and in their stories—our roots run deeper still.”
Peaks & Pints first partnered with the Tacoma Tree Foundation (TTF) in the fall of 2019, pairing our then-house beer, Kulshan Brewing Tree-Dimensional IPA, with TTF-selected trees across the city. For the 2024–25 season, we returned to the roots of that collaboration with a new house beer brewed at Loowit Brewing in downtown Vancouver, Washington. Since Loowit takes its name from Mount St. Helens—and the eruption that silenced many forests—we named the beer Silent Trees IPA, and once again turned to the Tacoma Tree Foundation to help us tell the stories of the city’s most beloved trees.
The TTF pointed us a couple of blocks north of Engine House No. 9, to a proud Kwanzan cherry standing sentinel in the southern fringe of the College Park Historic District—a neighborhood added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. Spanning 125 acres from North Pine to North Union, and 8th to 21st Streets, College Park includes 582 primary buildings—509 of them contributing properties—featuring Queen Anne, Tudor Revival, Minimal Traditional, and Craftsman styles, mostly built between 1890 and 1960. Though residents petitioned in 2021 to protect the area with a local historic overlay zone, the Tacoma Planning Commission voted down the request in November 2022.
“Oh, you should have seen the neighborhood ten years ago,” muses the Kwanzan cherry tree. “When the paint peeled in sighs and the porches leaned like tired knees after a long dance. Back then, I watched the houses hold their breath—old Victorians and Craftsman queens, unsure whether they’d be remembered or razed. But slowly, lovingly, they came back to life. I’ve watched fresh coats of hope brushed on weathered siding, stoops rebuilt like promises kept, stained-glass windows rediscovered under decades of grime. The renovations weren’t loud—no neon condos, no bulldozers singing dirges. Just soft-spoken realtors, hammer taps in morning mist, and neighbors comparing swatches like sacred scripture. One house sold for $610,000 last spring. Imagine that—this block, once a secret, now a prize in historic silk wrapping.”
And then came Porchfest.
“We don’t need no stinkin’ Planning Commission special review,” she quips, petals fluttering like applause, “unless the review is of Tacoma Porchfest, which crossed 6th Avenue into my neighborhood a month ago. It started as a whisper—guitar strings tuning two blocks over, a tambourine shimmering like a distant wind chime. Then came the amps. The banjos. The dancing toddlers in astronaut helmets. Suddenly, North 8th became a parade of picnic blankets and people pretending not to block driveways.”
“I’ve seen porch parties before—birthday balloons, lemonade stands, the occasional rogue jazz trio—but this? This was a full-blown neighborhood bloom. Bands spilled from Craftsman porches like ivy, voices harmonized beneath my boughs, and even the grumpiest hydrangeas nodded along to Fleetwood Mac covers. There were ukuleles on stoops, poets with megaphones, lawn chairs in the bike lane. And me? I just stood in the middle of it all like the neighborhood chaperone, shaking loose a few blossoms like confetti, trying not to judge the rhythm section too harshly.”
Kwanzan Cherry Tree | čəlisac | Prunus serrulata*
“While Kwanzan cherry trees rarely produce fruit, they can be easily identified by their clusters of flowers, which grow 24 to 28 petals each, and their color-changing leaves that start out as maroon when small but grow to a deep green in their full size,” explains Kate Threat of the Tacoma Tree Foundation. “In the wild, white petals are more common for fruiting cherry trees, but due to several hundred years’ worth of careful breeding and tending, blush-pink petals have come to signify Kwanzan cherry trees. This particular type of cherry tree is often grafted onto the trunks of bird cherry, a variant that grows as a small tree or shrub; however, Kwanzan trees also grow well on their own roots. They do not live as long as some other trees, but their lifespan can be extended by careful pruning and tending in full sun and well-drained soil. This deciduous tree typically blooms in mid-spring, though its peak bloom has been shifting earlier in the year due to warming climates for the past century.”
“The oldest documentation of this tree can be traced to a Japanese plant catalogue from 1681, in which it is referred to as a ‘sekiyama’,” adds Threat. “It is referred to today as ‘Kanzan’ in Japanese, and the name ‘Kwanzan’ is a result of a Western mistranslation. During the feudal era in Japan, trees selected for their striking beauty were presented as gifts to wealthy individuals or members of the royal court and were rarely propagated to maintain their exclusivity. As a fruit tree, cherry trees were initially introduced to the United States in the early seventeenth century, and made their way west in 1847 by Iowa nurseryman Henderson Lewelling. As an aesthetic tree, cherry variants like the Kwanzan did not gain popularity in the United States until the planting of thousands of flowering cherry trees around the Washington, DC tidal basin in 1912.”
“Much of my childhood was spent in the DC area, where every spring I would walk home after school with my face tilted to the skies to watch the dark buds of the most common cherry tree in the United States burst into bright pink clusters, illuminating the street (and sidewalk) as I waited for summer to arrive. By May, the canopy overhead as well as the sidewalks below would be the color of candy hearts, and I imagined everything would be pink forever. I was delighted when I moved across the country for school to find cherry trees lining the streets of my new neighborhoods as well, bidding me welcome and helping me feel at home.”
Loowit Brewing Silent Trees IPA
Visit the Kwanzan cherry tree on North Eighth, then head to the Proctor District for a pint or Campfire Crowler of Loowit Silent Trees IPA (6.6%) at Peaks & Pints. Brewed in collaboration with Loowit Brewing in Vancouver, Silent Trees IPA is a tribute to those who hike the trails, float the rivers, ride the snow, and lean against old trees with good beer and better stories. A love letter to pine-forward IPAs, this house beer is brewed with Simcoe, Columbus, and Chinook hops, delivering a blend of citrus and evergreen grit.
“Listen, darling,” sighs the Kwanzan cherry tree. “I adore admiration. I live for it. I bloom like it’s a red carpet. But here’s the thing—this isn’t the National Arboretum. This is a quiet, narrow stretch of North 8th Street. And while I may pose like a celebrity, the curb was not built for crowds. So unless you live nearby or arrive on foot—perhaps strolling with coffee in hand and the kind of reverence usually reserved for stained glass—consider admiring from afar. Or visit my cousin in Wright Park. She’s showier anyway. More photogenic. Less parking drama. But if you must come, park thoughtfully, tread lightly, and whisper your compliments. I’ll hear them in the petals.”
LINK: Loowit Silent Trees IPA inspires Tacoma Tree stories
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: Tulip Tree Speaks at Wright Park
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: Paper Birches Speak at Rosa Franklin Park
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: Pacific madrone in Point Defiance Park
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: 1910 Bigleaf Maple in North Tacoma
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: Breaking Silence near the Rhododendron Garden
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: Breaking Silence at Swan Creek Park
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: Breaking Silence Near People’s Park
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: Breaking Silence at Oak Tree Park
LINK: Kulshan brews Peaks and Pints Tree-dimensional IPA
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
