By Brad Dison

In 2002, Michael and Kelley Flamoe were house hunting in Tacoma, Washington. They saw several houses which were all nice and would have fit their needs, but something held them back each time. They were all nice houses, but none felt like home to them. Then, the realtor took them to a house at 1112 North J Street in Tacoma. The neighborhood was nice.

All of the houses on North J Street were at least two stories. The houses were built on a hill about six feet tall, which gave them the appearance of being taller than they actually were. To get from the sidewalk to the front doors of the houses took two flights of stairs sided with wrought iron hand railings which added to the charm of North J Street.

Across the road sat a large grey stone Catholic church. It was a picturesque neighborhood. This house had a unique feature in that it was the only house on the block which had numerous groupings of square columns rather than single round columns supporting the porch and roof. Michael and Kelley loved the craftsman style of the home they were considering, and they had not even walked in the front door. After viewing the house’s interior and large backyard, Micheal and Kelley decided their search was over. At first glance, this house felt like home.

Michael and Kelley moved in a short time later. They were in the process of emptying their mountain of moving boxes when they heard a noise coming from the front of their new home. It was a pleasant noise. Michael and Kelley paused to listen more closely. They heard people singing.

They remembered the large Catholic church across the street. Perhaps the parishioners were singing, but they were certain they would be unable to hear the singing through the solid stone walls. Michael and Kelley walked to the front room and peered from the picture window. There, at the base of their two flights of stairs, stood a gathering of people who were singing to their new home. Michael and Kelley gave an awkward smile and wave, their singing neighbors returned the gesture. After three or four songs, they ended on a Christmas song, but Christmas was months away. As soon as they finished singing, the crowd began returning to their nearby homes as if it were a perfectly normal thing to do.

To the crowd, it was perfectly normal. They gathered once a week to sing to the house. Michael and Kelley were not bothered by the act, or by the other strange happenings that occasionally happened in front of their home. Carloads, and sometimes busloads, of tourists would stop in front of their home on the normally quiet street, pile out, take pictures of and selfies with the home, some would sing to the house, then they reboarded their mode of transportation and disappeared as quickly as they had come. The weekly singings and the random visits by tourists happened long before Michael and Kelley moved in and it continues to this day. You see, when Michael and Kelley moved into the home, they paid little attention to a bronze plaque embedded into one of the steps leading to the home. It read, “Birthplace of Harry Lillis “Bing” Crosby.”