Day Island: one bridge, a few hundred homes, and the whole Narrows out front

1

Bridge on and off the island, at 27th Street West

1949

Day Island Yacht Club founded by island residents

1 mi

South of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, by water or road

1907

Year the island was platted into its original 60-foot lots

A real island, reached by a real bridge

Day Island sits off the western shore of University Place, between Chambers Bay to the south and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to the north. It is a long, low strip of land with Puget Sound on its west side and a sheltered lagoon on its east. The only way on is Day Island Boulevard West, which leaves Bridgeport Way at 27th Street, drops toward the water, and crosses a short bridge onto the island. The remnants of the original bridge, once at 19th Street, are still visible on the northeast shore.

That single crossing is what shapes the place. There is no through traffic, no commercial strip, and no reason to be on the island unless you live there, keep a boat there, or were invited. The platting dates to 1907, when the island was divided into 60-foot lots, and much of that original scale survives: narrow lanes, cottages set close to the water, and newer Northwest contemporary homes built to catch the view. The Day Island Club, a voluntary residents' association with its own clubhouse on Day Island Boulevard, hosts community events through the year.

The island also carries a piece of Northwest boatbuilding history. The Willits Brothers built their celebrated cedar canoes here for decades, and the maritime character never left. Boats still outnumber sidewalks.

Off the island, everything is close

Day Island feels remote and is not. Bridgeport Way West, University Place's main commercial spine, is a few minutes up 27th Street, with Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, the Town Center and the University Place Library. Chambers Bay, host of the 2015 U.S. Open, is roughly ten minutes south with its public links course and the paved 3-mile Grandview loop trail along the bluff.

For commuters, State Route 16 is minutes away: the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to Gig Harbor and the Kitsap Peninsula in one direction, I-5 and downtown Tacoma in the other. Joint Base Lewis-McChord is about 20 minutes south, and Seattle is reachable in under an hour outside peak traffic.

The island is served by the University Place School District, including Curtis Senior High School. Charles Wright Academy and Annie Wright Schools are the nearest independent options. Confirm current attendance boundaries with the district when evaluating a specific address.

Buying on Day Island

The island suits boaters who want moorage steps from home, buyers who want true Puget Sound waterfront without leaving the Tacoma metro, and anyone who values a neighborhood where people know each other's boats by name. It is not the right fit if you want a large flat lot, a three-car garage, or a house that never needs a paintbrush; salt air is part of the deal.

Things we walk buyers through before an offer: tideland and bulkhead ownership, dock and moorage rights, flood-zone and shoreline permitting, septic versus sewer status for older cottages, and what the Day Island Club membership does and does not include.

Selling a Day Island home

Automated estimates struggle here. There are too few sales, and a west-side no-bank lot and an interior cottage two streets over are not the same asset. Pricing a Day Island home means pulling every island sale for several years, adjusting for frontage, bank height, view corridor, moorage and condition, and then knowing which buyers are already circling.

Photography and timing matter more than usual: the view sells the house, and the view is best in the long light of late spring through early fall.

Talk to someone who knows the island

Whether you are watching for the right waterfront lot or deciding when to sell a home your family has held for decades, start with a conversation about Day Island specifically, not University Place in general.