Port Townsend, WA - Homes and Bunkers

When you finally go back to your old home, you find it wasn’t the old home you missed but your childhood.

                                                                                         Sam Ewing.

Today we toured several of the prominent homes in this area. I’ve mentioned the Victorian homes on the bluff overlooking the harbor and one of these is open for tours. We walked up the bluff and had just entered the home of one of the major businessmen in the mid - 1890’s, DCH Rothschild. He was born in Bavaria in 1824 but moved to Port Townsend in 1858 after traveling around the world and engaging in several businesses. He opened a business in PT known as the ‘Kentucky Store’ but changed it to the Rothschild and Co. Mercantile. Realizing the potential of the marine business, he slowly but surely changed his focus from general merchandise to marine supplies.

For several years, his family lived above his Kentucky Store but soon moved to Uptown to a home which his family lived in from 1868 to 1954, when his daughter died. During this time only minor changes were made in the home except for the addition of a bathroom, so the home is very much as it was when the family lived in it.

We entered and were getting the opening spiel from the volunteer who was there but then two tour buses arrived. Oh, boy. We left, walked around the neighborhood and returned about 30 minutes later for our tour.

Here’s the master bedroom. I was especially intrigued by the floor covering. Note that the pattern goes one way, but there are some seams in it where the folds appear. When this needed to be cleaned, the seams were undone, each section was beaten separately and then sewed back together and replaced in the room. Obviously, lots of hand labor to keep a house up.

We also went out to the Commanding Officer’s Quarter’s Museum at For Worden on the tip of the peninsula where the shore defenses were. The officers’ homes were large Victorian mansions lining one side of the parade grounds

while the enlisted men’s quarters were the barracks lining the other side.

Fort Worden was strategically placed such that it could work with two other forts to protect trade routes through Puget Sound as depicted in the picture below.

There were bunkers lining the shore, all hidden from the sea but with very powerful guns.

Here’s my view from one of the spotting towers near the bunkers out over the Sound to where Fort Casey was on the land on the other side of this Sound.

We saw this quote by one of the bunkers. I can understand the hands over the ears but standing on tiptoes?

Then, as if to emphasize how important this channel is, I next saw this.

However, by the end of WWI, the fort was obsolete and was used more for training than for defense.

The Commanding Officer’s Home was beautifully well kept and we were able to tour it. Here are the maid’s quarters on the third floor. By the way, they had a marvelous view of Puget Sound out their window - if they ever had time to gaze out of the window.

The kitchen was right up to date. Note the wringers on the washing machine in the far corner.

The master bedroom was quite spectacular. The quilt on the quilt stand at the foot of the bed shows both sides of the quilt: the light side for spring and summer, the dark side for winter. Note the corset bag at the foot of the bed.

We saw two beautiful examples of Victorian homes in Port Townsend today. There are many more but these two are open for the public to view.