July, 2025
Ok, let’s go see some things in the impressively historic town of Port Townsend, which is right next to the Point Hudson marina/RV park. I’ll go walk around “downtown” Port Townsend in a day or so, and I’ll share highlights of that with you too. But today I jumped in the big white truck and headed up the hill behind the town so I could see some of the really amazing old homes here. A few deer joined my journey too. Come on along! 🙂
I will mostly just share photos … with a few comments now and then. These are really old homes! Click on photos to enlarge them.
The sign below was posted on the house above … built in 1901 … and that was one of the NEWER old homes here.
Below … wow look at this one! It was built in 1889.
Below … a fire escape!
The home above had this sign (below) in front of it. The home is now a multi-use room-by-room-rented business so you can stay there! The Starrett House. And spooky history here.
Ah, but here are some more wonderful homes ….. look at the detail.
And then (below) around another corner, I found this deer person eating tree leaves, above her! I’ve seen deer reaching up momentarily to reach leaves, but never anything like this. She’s a dancer and an athlete!
My truck was stopped of course and I didn’t get out. The video above was taken through the windshield of the truck. She did that same dance for the leaves a few more times but then she eventually stopped. She then walked into the yard of the home on the right, and that’s when I saw that she had a spotted fawn with her. In the photo below, she had just turned her head and spotted me. Ha! did she think she was hiding behind that light pole? Maybe. But she sure was checking me out.
Moments later, she and her spotted babe were headed off into the woods behind that home.
Down another street, around another block or two, I was surprised by this view of a clock/bell tower (below). I was up on top of a hill right then, so the roofs of homes were on eye-level with me, which means that clock/bell tower was tall! You can see the bell inside the tower many feet below the clock. I was so impressed! It was afternoon when I was here (2pm by that clock) so the sun was to the west, behind that clock tower …. so I drove around several blocks in order to get to the sunny side of the structure.
And below … I made it there. That tower is huge. The building was built in 1892 as the new Jefferson County Courthouse with a clock/bell tower that is 124 feet tall. The clock seemed to be about 10-12 feet in diameter. More information is here.
And then on my drive back through the residential areas of Port Townsend, back to my campsite at Point Hudson, there were many more old homes to see … please do open photos by clicking on them, and notice the details on all of these buildings.
I wish every one of these homes had information about their build date, and who built them, and who lived in them. All I could do was be so fascinated by them.
The town of Port Townsend is small by comparison with other “cities” in the State of Washington, but it was one of the first towns here … and one of the first to have major access to the salt water … to fishing and shipping. That’s why there are so many old homes and other buildings here that date back to the 1800s.
As mentioned, I’ll share my walk of downtown Port Townsend here soon along with historic information about the town. It’s such a great place to visit on a nice sunny day. 🙂
What a beautiful moment captured. There’s something so peaceful about seeing wildlife just being… nature at its best. Thank you for sharing these beautiful pictures of Port Townsend!
Hi Martha! 🙂 Oh, I do agree, wildlife and other nature, plants, the sky, ok maybe not so much the rain right now, but all of it is such a blessing. Thanks for the comment, nice comment.
Fantastic homes. We’ve driven and walked through downtown Port Townsend a number of times but never knew about the homes up on the hillside. Next time!
Janey
Oh yes, there were many more historic homes up there above downtown than I included in this blog post. So I would encourage a driving and walking tour next time you’re down here, Janey. 🙂 You two will love it.
Port Townsend is one of my favorite towns, historic, fun, lots of happy folks out and about, really great shops, and yes deer everywhere just two or three blocks up from downtown, everyone drives REALLY slowly. You sure captured the old homes there nicely. I didn’t know about the courthouse and the bell tower, ahh always something to learn. Thanks Ann.
You’re welcome, David. You’ve shared so much with me of your travels, it’s nice to know I could share something new for you. Thanks!
I like that plain old grey house towards the end, and the dancing deer. 🙂
I liked that old grey house the best too, Walt. It had historic charm but was also comfortable and warm and welcoming and not so BIG as the others.
We celebrated our 10th “ann”iversary there, 30 years ago….and we stayed at the Ann Starrett House. What a walk down memory lane, can’t wait for the tour of downtown!
Ha! What fun. 🙂 What a coincidence, or not. I like that you and Mark were in that house. Wow, 30 years ago, can you believe it? Ok, a short downtown tour is coming, stay tuned.
Your display of historic homes in Port Townsend is very welcome. It’s been a long time since I visited there, but I remember it as an amazing place. Thanks for the memories.
You are so welcome, Janet. I like remembering good things from the past, and I’m happy this blog post brought some of those memories back for you. I’ll share more of Port Townsend in an upcoming blog post soon. Thanks for being here.
We have old buildings here in Santa Fe, but ours are different from your homes up north. Ours are adobe or brick, yours are wood. Wood would be eaten away down here by heat and light and dry air. Really love the old classic wood homes. And the delightful dancing deer. 🙂
I’d never thought of old homes like this in the southwest, Shawn. I always assumed they’d be the same, tho maybe more built of brick/clay/stone simply because there aren’t as many trees. But I never thought about heat and light and dry air and probably UV down there. Excellent info, thank you!! 🙂
Beautiful old homes and very well maintained, though I wouldn’t want to be the guy who had to repaint the Starrett House! Fun dancing deer. 🙂
Ha!! Good thought about painting that Starrett House … wow, what a lot of detail work that would be, on TALL ladders and hanging upside down, etc. Nope, not for me either, Ben. 🙂
I love old houses. We saw some in northern Georgia while we were camping last summer. The houses you found were really beautiful especially that big one.
Gosh, I would love to drive around the USA and visit historic homes like these here or those you have in Georgia. What a great experience that would be. Ok, you need to take some photos and post them ok? Thanks Dawn. 🙂
My aunt used to live in Port Townsend, after my uncle died. They had visited there and she always wanted to live there, finally got her wish. She wasn’t there very many years before she needed more medical attention and had to move, but I got to visit her a number of times. Most homes (hers too) are just regular homes, though most are small and old but well maintained. But there are dozens and dozens of those truly historic homes and they sure are gorgeous. She talked about the deer, how they walked through everyone’s yards and most folks didn’t put up fences because of that, people used hedges instead of fences. What a lovely kind way to live.
Incredibly wonderful comment, Fran. Thank you. I love the idea of hedges instead of fences. And I love the idea that your aunt lived up there in one of those houses that I drove past or walked past. Makes me smile … and it also tugs on my heart since you obviously cared about your aunt so much. Here’s to both of you.
Those are some seriously gorgeous old homes! The third house and the courthouse are spectacular! I look forward to hearing more details.
You betcha FG, more coming! 🙂