Port Townsend

August 21, 2020 Friday

Back to bag-o-breakfast at the hotel and charging up the car at the Chevrolet dealership. We got on the road about 11:15 and headed east on 101, retracing the route we drove in on Sunday night until Discovery Bay where we turned north on route 20. After a 44 mile drive we arrived in Port Townsend. I got lost driving into town and we ended up driving on Cherry Street to the north end of town driving through Fort Worden State Park. The fort was formerly part of the coastal defense system that defended Puget Sound. What we saw were lots of rhododendron plants, restored, very handsome Victorian homes along the former Officer's row and a large parade grounds. No military. Most of the scenes from An Officer and a Gentleman were filmed at the fort. I finally got myself righted and we drove down to the historic district passing scores of preserved Victorian homes.

The presence of so many Victorian homes, more than any I have scene except for Eureka CA., provides a window into Port Townsend's historic rise, fall and then revival. The town was founded by Europeans in 1851. Located at the northeast corner of Quimper Peninsula which is at the northeastern part of the larger Olympic Peninsula, at the northern end of a large harbor, it was perfectly located to be both the guardian of Puget Sound and the major seaport for the northwest US. It got a fast start. By 1853 it had wrested the Customs House from Tacoma (it briefly lost this plum to Port Angeles) and over the next four decades it grew increasingly prosperous and populated as the growing seaport attracted banks, hotels, consulates, shipyards and commerce. As early as the late 1870s plans were made for it to become a western rail terminus of a northern transcontinental railroad, only to see those plans repeatedly fail. However in 1890 the city secured an agreement with the Union Pacific RR to become its western terminus and the city went wild. In a city of only 4,500 people, in the following year downtown real estate transactions (speculation?) totaled $4.600,000  including the building of 10 hotels, 3 street car lines, 6 hardware and dry goods stores and a new City Hall, plus hundreds of Victorian structures. Alas, that all came crashing down in the financial panic of 1893.  The rail subsidiary tasked with building the extension into town went into foreclosure and the rail lines ended up terminating on the east side of Puget Sound. The boom was over and commerce in Port Townsend came to a virtual standstill. Within 10 years the town's population declined by a quarter and the once fashionable Victorian homes that cost $25,000, were sold for a few hundred dollars, only to stand vacant for decades. The city's dreams of becoming the west coast's major port were forever dashed.  However this economic malaise ultimately, 80 years later, became the basis of the town's revival. Because of the rapid speed at which the economy declined in the 1890s and the lack of any significant economic activity to revive it, very few of the buildings in the area were torn down or built over and unlike many of the other cities in the northwest whose infrastructure succumbed to natural or man made disasters, Port Townsend's buildings were preserved. In 1976 many of its structures were listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the next year the entire downtown was designated as a National Historic Landmark. That lead to a revival of the area as a tourist and retiree destination. 

As we drove into the downtown area I found a charging station next to the marina in the northeast corner of town provided by Maritime Center and Power Trip Energy.  The S'Klallam Indians lived in the Port Townsend area for thousands of years and still reside there. In 1855 the Point No Point Treaty preserved their right to fish, hunt and gather in the area and there was a self guided interpretative Indian walking tour. We started that at Chetzemoka Park, the city's first park along the waterfront. The marina had lots of small boats including what appeared to be working fishing boats. 

 

We briefly toured the Northwest Maritime Center which had Indian artifacts including a totem pole and a canoe, but was largely closed. We walked out on the pier and found a crabber. We talked with him at length. He lives on the mainland, but comes out here regularly to crab. He explained the rules, limit of 6 crabs, had to be a certain size and no female crabs could be retained. He commented wryly about how his family expected him to deliver crabs.I was amazed at how casually he tossed the illegal crabs back into the water as he assured us that did not harm them. He let us toss some crabs, traps and pull in some lines.

It was a windy and cool day but mostly sunny and there was a single sun bather on the small beach. We walked up and down Washington, Jefferson and Water streets taking in the score of large, well preserved buildings including the Rose Theater, library, courthouse and federal building and street musicians. We stopped at the Elevated Ice Cream Co and then did some shopping at the community owned Quimper Mercantile Company. We saw the boats from the Washington State Ferry service take off and dock. 

 

We added 40 electric miles and took off for Port Angeles about 6:00.  After a gasoline refueling stop along the way back we parked the car at the dealership for some more electricity and walked over to Joshua's for dinner. We experienced extreme table spacing and very generous portions.