July, 2025
Today, again, I started out intending to walk from my campsite, around the marina, and then into the downtown area of historic Port Townsend. But this time I did it! I made it! I didn’t get sidetracked. 🙂
The main street (Water Street) of old Port Townsend runs right along the waterfront, not surprisingly. But the folks who planned this town did not run that street right NEXT to the water as many towns do … they left room on the water side of that street for shops, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses, right along the water. That has paid off. There are a number of hotels on that water side of Water Street that have rooms overlooking the water and the islands, the rising sun and the setting sun, all the boats cruising past, etc, as well as restaurants over there with outside seating, and lots of public areas with outside seating and beach access. I still like my campsite best, but staying in one of those hotel rooms would be pretty great. 🙂
Ok, let me show you a bit of downtown historic Port Townsend. First off, here’s the view from the very back end of my trailer, looking south across the marina, and then into the north end of Port Townsend. It is that close!
Here (below) is a bird’s eye view that I snagged off the internet. The historic downtown area is comprised of the reddish brick buildings that run right along the water in the bottom/left side of the photo below. It is not a large downtown area. It used to be larger back when Port Townsend was the largest city in Washington State because ocean ships docked here. But, when the railroad arrived in this state, the railroad didn’t come all the way over here … too far. The railroad stopped in Tacoma, Seattle, and other points on the east side of Puget Sound. Since Port Townsend was on the west side of Puget Sound, and at the very northern end of it no less, the railroad company didn’t want to spend the money to build a railway line WAY over here, way out here. So then ocean ships bypassed Port Townsend and headed to those other ports that had railroads. So the downtown area of Port Townsend diminished, and almost disappeared at one point, until the tourist industry brought it back to life and many of the downtown buildings (and homes up the hill) were restored.
From the marina, I walked into the northern parts of Port Townsend. The photo below shows the old City Hall building, built in 1892. It now houses the Jefferson County Art & History Museum. It also has a restored courtroom and a jail cell, for show only. 🙂
But just before that building, on the right hand side of that street, was this rock below.
Actually, all I saw was a HUGE growth of weeds, and the very top two inches of that rock. I got curious and scrabbled around in those weeds. When I saw the top edge of that sign on that rock, well then I went to town (as it were) and pulled and cut weeds to my heart’s content and uncovered the entire sign. Wow, how cool is that? Why wouldn’t the town of Port Townsend keep this memorial clear for all to see? Rest assured, I emailed them!
And, rest assured, the history that’s reported on this sign is accurate. Captain George Vancouver did land here in 1792 and named this site “Port Townsend”.
But let us move on to some of the really fun stuff here in Port Townsend today, businesses that still use those original old buildings.
The Hotel above ……
The Wine Seller below …
Actually, the owner and founder of that wine shop above is a friend of mine, Joe Euro. He and his wife own an old 1947 Matthews cruising sedan similar to the boat I used to own. His wine is lovely, his boat is gorgeous, he has excellent taste. And, he is a professional solo guitar player and has several CD’s out. I have all of them. 🙂
There are so many extraordinary shops in Port Townsend. The yarn shop above is just one. There’s also Whistle Stop Toys, Wynwoods Gallery & Bead Store, Celtic Crossroads clothing store, Wildwoods Coffee Lounge, A Stitch in Time Quilt Shop, The Bag Ladies (wearable art from local artists), and so much more! Ice cream parlors, gardening stores with local plants, all manner of clothing shops, book stores, etc.
Besides those shops (all in old buildings), there are a number of amazingly huge old buildings here. Below is the Hastings Building, built in 1890, that still has most of its original gorgeous interior wood, extremely intricate door hinges, and original fire places that still function safely although the building now enjoys fully electric heat and lights. I was told it is in the process of being restored.
Another is already-restored Monarch Hotel (below), with 24×7 front desk service and rooms with views of the water and the Olympic Mountains. It was built in 1889 at a cost of $25,000.
Both of the large, old buildings above are right on Water Street and easily seen while walking in downtown Port Townsend.
I walked south along one side of Water Street, taking photos, making notes, and eventually turned around and headed back north also taking photos and making notes. Eventually, back at the very north end, I was happy to see the “Northwest Maritime Center” building … along with the native nation’s totem pole.
As a former owner of an old wood boat (1939 Matthews 41-foot power cruiser), I couldn’t help but take an afternoon and visit this maritime center. I’ll show that to you in the next blog post.
Speaking of old wood boats … in last week’s blog post, reader Joe wrote a comment asking about my boat and whether it would fit in the Point Hudson Marina and whether I’d ever taken that boat to that marina. Well, it does fit and I have had the boat in there. Here are just two photos from one of the times that I stayed at that marina with my boat. The photos are from my boat trip here in 2015. Friends (on their boat) and I (on my boat) were heading up into the San Juan Islands for a week or two, and stopped off here for one night on our way north.
For the photo above, taken long before I knew I would be here with my RV … for the photo above, I had walked up on shore and was standing pretty much where my trailer was on THIS trip today in 2025.
To take the photo below, I was standing over on the south side of the marina, on that dock that runs right along the northern edge of Port Townsend. Notice the two folks in their chairs, out by the rocks, sitting there looking out over the water and Whidbey Island (and the Cascade mountains in the distance). Well, little did I know when I was here in 2015 with this boat, that THAT is exactly where I would sit in MY chair in 2025 and look out over that same gorgeous view, while camped in my trailer almost directly in front of where my boat had been moored in 2015.
The flags on the boat … on the bow, way up front, is the “C” for Classic Yacht Association, the international wooden boat club I belonged to for so many years. The USA flag is on the stern. The roof of the main cabin on the boat has a “flag mast” on it (it’s not a mast for a sail, just for flags). The yellow flag on the left is the Lion Rampant of Scotland … I’m of Scottish descent, and the designer/builder of this boat was Scott Matthews, born in Scotland and moved as a child with his parents to the Great Lakes area where he then started building wood boats, and made a tremendously successful career of that for many decades, including building this boat, Pied Piper, that I enjoyed for many years. The white flag on the right side of that mast is an “M” which stands for the Matthews Boat Club, still in existence today, all members are owners of boats built by Scott Matthews or his sons. The dark blue flag, with a white anchor on it, at the very top of the mast is designation that I am a Past Commodore of the Classic Yacht Association. All prim and proper! 🙂 While out cruising, as soon as our boats crossed the dotted line on the map and entered Canadian water, the white “M” flag was taken down from that starboard halyard just below the spreader, and the Canadian flag was raised in its place. “O Canada!”
Great memories. Sigh. I sure enjoyed all of my friends and all of our adventures. And I sure loved that boat.
AND … last but certainly not least, here is an excellent video that I found on the internet that talks all about Port Townsend.
The video show-cases so many things I’ve seen and done here. Great memories. If any of YOU folks are ever anywhere near Port Townsend, or have the time to travel to Port Townsend, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Take a warm summer day and relax and have a great time.