Is Puyallup a Small Town or a Busy Suburb?

Ask ten residents and you will get both answers, and they will all be right. Puyallup is a small town that had a large suburb grow up around it. The feel changes within a ten-minute drive.

I have lived here, and I still work here most days. Here is where each side shows up, so you can figure out which one you would be living in.

The numbers behind the feeling

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts for the city. South Hill figure is the 2020 census count for the South Hill census-designated place.

Those figures explain a lot. The incorporated city is a mid-size town. The unincorporated community next door, which shares the Puyallup name on its mail, is larger than the city. Put them together, add the surrounding areas, and you have a population on the scale of a small city spread across a valley and a plateau.

So when people say Puyallup feels small, they are usually thinking of the city core. When they say it feels big and busy, they are usually thinking of South Hill.

Where it feels like a small town

Downtown. The original townsite is a grid of streets around Meridian, Pioneer Avenue, and Main Avenue. You can park once and walk to the library, Pioneer Park, city hall, restaurants, and shops. Buildings are low. Business owners know their regulars.

The farmers market. Saturdays from spring through fall, the market fills the area around Pioneer Park. People run into neighbors there. It is a weekly ritual more than a shopping trip.

The traditions. The Washington State Fair began in 1900 as the Puyallup Valley Fair. The Daffodil Parade has come through each April for generations. Locals still say "the Puyallup Fair" and still tell you to "do the Puyallup."

High school sports. Friday night football draws a crowd, and the rivalries between the local high schools are taken seriously.

The older neighborhoods. On the blocks around downtown, houses sit close to the sidewalk, front porches get used, and mature trees shade the street. People walk dogs and stop to talk.

The agricultural roots. The valley was famous for hops, then berries and daffodils. Some farmland remains on the edges, and Washington State University runs a research and extension center in town. You can still buy produce from a farm stand a few minutes from a shopping center.

Where it feels like a busy suburb

Meridian on South Hill. This is the commercial strip: a regional mall, big-box stores, chain restaurants, car dealerships, and one traffic signal after another. On a Saturday afternoon it feels like any large American suburb.

The subdivisions. South and east of the city are thousands of homes in planned neighborhoods, many built in the last few decades, with cul-de-sacs, association signs at the entrances, and community parks.

The highways. State Route 512 and State Route 167 are full freeways with the rush-hour patterns of the larger Puget Sound region.

The growth. New housing, new retail, and new schools keep arriving. Construction is a regular sight.

The anonymity. In the newer areas, you can live for years without knowing more than a few neighbors unless you make the effort.

A side-by-side

The in-between places

Not everything fits neatly in one column. A few parts of the area blend the two.

Lower South Hill inside the city. Neighborhoods from the 1970s and 1980s, close to the hospital and to the freeway, with established trees. Quieter than upper Meridian, more suburban than downtown.

The east side along Shaw Road. Newer hillside subdivisions, with a quick drop into the valley and the east end of downtown.

The valley edges. Out toward Alderton and along the river, the feel turns rural: larger lots, older farmhouses, fields. This is neither small town nor suburb. It is country that happens to be ten minutes from a freeway.

Edgewood and North Hill. Across the river to the north is a separate city on its own plateau, with larger lots and a lower-density feel. It is not Puyallup, but people shopping here often consider it.

How the small town absorbs the growth

One fair question is whether the small-town side is fading. In my experience it has held up, for a few reasons.

• The downtown is the real original, not a recreation. It has a train station, a civic center, and a park at its heart. That gives it staying power.
• The fair anchors the identity. A 160-acre fairground near downtown is not going anywhere, and it ties the town to its history every September.
• The city has invested downtown. Streetscape work, new mixed-use buildings near the station, and events keep people coming.
• Residents show up. Parades, markets, and school events are well attended. A tradition lasts when people keep choosing it.

What has changed is the scale around the core. The suburb is now much larger than the town it grew from. If you live on the plateau and never go downtown, you could miss the small-town side entirely.

What busy looks like, specifically

If you are coming from a truly small town, "busy" needs a definition.

• Weekday afternoons. Meridian on South Hill slows to a crawl in stretches from about three o'clock on.
• Rush hour. The freeway interchanges back up. So do the main roads that climb between the valley and the hill.
• Weekends. Shopping areas are crowded, especially before holidays.
• Fair season. For roughly three weeks around Labor Day, the streets near the fairgrounds are packed.

If you are coming from Seattle, Los Angeles, or another large metro, none of this will impress you. If you are coming from a town of 5,000, it will take adjusting.

What quiet looks like, specifically

And "quiet" needs one too.

• Residential streets a few blocks off the arterials are calm most of the day.
• Downtown on a weekday morning is unhurried.
• The parks are peaceful outside of weekend afternoons.
• The valley edges are dark and still at night.

The busy parts are concentrated on a handful of corridors. Get off them and the pace drops fast. I list specific things to look for in my post on quiet neighborhoods in Puyallup.

Which one will you live in?

Your experience comes down to three choices.

1. Valley or hill. The valley puts you closer to the small-town core. The hill puts you in the suburb.

2. Distance from Meridian. The closer you live to the commercial strip, the more of the busy side you absorb every day. A mile or two east or west changes things.

3. How you spend your weekends. If you shop the farmers market, walk to coffee, and go to the parade, Puyallup will feel like a town. If you drive to the big-box stores and stay in your subdivision, it will feel like a suburb. Both are available wherever you live.

How the day sounds

One way to tell the two apart is to listen.

On the small-town side you hear the train horn from the tracks through downtown, the noon siren test on the first Monday of the month, a marching band practicing in the fall, and the fair's concerts and fireworks in September. These are sounds people who grew up here associate with home.

On the suburban side you hear road noise near the arterials, lawn equipment on Saturdays, and not much else. A few blocks into most subdivisions it is quiet enough to hear the wind in the firs.

Neither is a flaw. If a train horn would bother you, do not buy near the tracks. If total stillness would bother you, the far edge of a cul-de-sac development might feel too removed.

Who runs what

The small town and the suburb are also governed differently, and that affects the feel more than people expect.

Inside the city limits, a city council, a city police department, and city public works are responsible for streets, parks, and planning. Residents can attend a council meeting downtown and speak to the people who make decisions about their block.

On unincorporated South Hill, the county fills that role. Pierce County is a large government serving several hundred thousand people in unincorporated areas, so decisions are made farther away. South Hill voters considered forming their own city in the late 1990s and declined.

If having a local government close at hand matters to you, that is a point for living inside the city. I explain how to check in my post on mailing addresses versus city limits.

What long-time residents say changed

People who have been here for decades tend to mention the same things.

• The valley farmland that used to separate Puyallup from Sumner and Fife has filled in with warehouses and housing.
• South Hill went from woods and a few crossroads to the largest community in the area.
• Meridian went from a country highway to a commercial corridor.
• Downtown lost some old businesses and gained new restaurants, apartments, and the train.

What they say has not changed: the fair, the parade, the view of the mountain, and the habit of running into someone you know at the grocery store.

A test you can run in one day

If you want to feel the difference before you decide, try this.

1. Morning. Park downtown. Get coffee. Walk through Pioneer Park and a few of the residential blocks around it.
2. Midday. Drive up Meridian to South Hill. Have lunch near the mall. Notice the traffic and the pace.
3. Afternoon. Turn off Meridian into a few subdivisions. Drive through, then walk one.
4. Late afternoon. Head east on a back road into the valley farmland toward Alderton, then loop back.
5. Evening. Have dinner downtown.

By the end you will know which Puyallup you were picturing, and whether it is the one you want.

Comparing it with the neighbors

Context helps.

• Sumner, just east, is the purest small town in the area. About 10,000 people, a tidy main street, and its own train station.
• Bonney Lake, up the hill past Sumner, is almost entirely suburban, built mostly in recent decades.
• Tacoma, to the west, is a real city of more than 200,000 with distinct urban neighborhoods.
• Orting, to the south, is a small town surrounded by farmland with a longer drive to everything.

Puyallup sits in the middle of that range. It has more going on than Sumner or Orting, more history and center than Bonney Lake, and a slower pace than Tacoma.

What I tell clients

When someone says they want a small-town feel, I ask what they mean. Usually it is one of three things.

• Knowing people. That comes from how you live more than where. Join something. Downtown makes it easier.
• Less traffic. Then stay near your main route and away from upper Meridian.
• Character. Look at the older neighborhoods in the valley, or at Sumner.

When someone says they want suburban convenience, I ask the same question.

• Newer homes with less upkeep. Look south and east.
• Shopping close by. South Hill.
• A planned community with amenities. The master-planned neighborhoods on the plateau.

Puyallup can deliver either list. Very few towns its size can.

Frequently asked questions

Is Puyallup a small town?

The city has about 43,000 residents and a traditional downtown that still feels like a small town. The greater Puyallup area, including South Hill, is much larger and feels suburban.

Is Puyallup considered a suburb?

Yes. It functions as a suburb of Tacoma and, for many commuters, of Seattle. It also has its own downtown, employers, hospital, and long-standing traditions.

Is downtown Puyallup walkable?

Yes. The library, Pioneer Park, the farmers market, restaurants, shops, and the Sounder train station are within a compact, walkable area.

Is South Hill part of Puyallup?

Part of South Hill is inside the Puyallup city limits. Much of it is unincorporated Pierce County that uses Puyallup mailing addresses.

Related reading

• Downtown Puyallup vs. South Hill: What Is the Difference?
• What Is It Really Like Living in Puyallup, Washington?
• Walkable Puyallup: Where to Live Near Shops and Restaurants
• How Bad Is Traffic on South Hill?

Equal Housing Opportunity. Austin Robertson, License # 21036843, Austin Robertson and Allena Robertson Real Estate Brokers, regulated by the Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL). This article is general information only. It is not legal, tax, insurance, lending, or construction advice, and it is not an appraisal of any property. Robertson & Co. supports fair housing and does not describe or recommend neighborhoods based on who lives there. Costs, rates, and rules change. Confirm the details with the sources linked above before you act.