The Victorian Seaport of Port Townsend

What do you call a town with 10,000 people and more than 300 Victorian houses? Port Townsend! (Which by the way, is the only incorporated city in all of Jefferson County, an area of nearly 2200 square miles.)

Surrounded on nearly all sides by water, strategically located at the entrance to Puget Sound, town planners in the mid-1800s expected Port Townsend to be the biggest port in the state, and possibly the west coast. A building boom quickly followed. But in early 1890s, Port Townsend’s nearly 9,000 residents were caught off-guard when the railroad companies decided to end the tracks in Tacoma/Seattle, and the town went bust.

But the lovely buildings remained, and now the Port Townsend Historic District is a U.S. National Historic Landmark District. It’s also one of only three nationally recognized Victorian seaports in the United States (the others being Galveston, TX and Cape May, NJ).

Built in 1893 and used now as a post office, the Port Townsend Federal Building was once the Port Office and Customs House. It’s the oldest federally built post office in Washington, and the only example of Richardson Romanesque design in a federal building in Washington.

With the 143 foot tower showcasing its Romanesque Revival architecture, the Jefferson County Courthouse was built in 1892.

Perhaps the most stunning example of Romanesque style architecture is the commercial Hastings Building, completed in 1890. Located at the corner of Water and Taylor Streets, the upper floors were converted to apartments to house officers based at Fort Worden during World War II but have been mostly vacant since that time. The building is currently planned to undergo a full historic rehabilitation (discussion of which has been ongoing since 2007), but The Washington Trust for Historic Preservation lists it as one of its most endangered buildings.

A number of the Victorian houses have become hotels, inns and B&Bs.

The Frank W. Hastings House, also known as the old German Consulate, and now the Old Consultate B&B, was never an embassy. But for a couple of years the acting German vice-consul was a boarder there. Frank Hastings was into construction, and in addition to his house and the commercial Hastings Building, he also built a school.

Built by George Starrett for his wife Ann, the Starrett House has been a B&B for 30 years.

It feels a bit odd photographing someone’s residence, but these are lovely houses, so I clicked away.

You’d never guess, but the Newton Wm. O’Rear House started out as a carriage house, and was converted to a residence in 1908.

The Dr. Jacob C. House house. Just the name makes me chuckle.

The Francis Wilcox James House, built in 1889, was a B&B for a while, but is now a private residence.

And by the way, if you’d like to own the oldest house in Port Townsend, and have $2.45 million, the Capt. Enoch Fowler House has been beautifully restored and is up for sale.