Category: Lodging

Port Townsend's Victorians

The Victorian architecture of Port Townsend is real eye candy. Many of the buildings were completed in the late 1890s and the two I’ll show you today were both the work of architect Elmer H. Fisher. Fisher was a Scotsman who designed a number of Port Townsend buildings starting around 1887 and simultaneously opened an office in Seattle, where he designed more than 50 buildings immediately after Seattle’s great fire of 1889.

The Hastings Building, above, was built at a cost of $35,000 to $45,000 and completed in 1890. It has a 38-foot inner courtyard topped with a glass skylight and has housed businesses from dry goods to a reputed bordello. Today the ground floor houses retail businesses and the upper floors are not occupied. Descendents of the original family still own the building and are working on an ambitious restoration of the structure.

Here is another Elmer H. Fisher design, the N.D. Hill Building. This $25,000 building has been maintained and kept in near original condition. Like the Hastings Building above, it has a skylighted interior courtyard. In the late 1920s this building was the DeVillo Hotel and rooms ran from 75 cents to $1.25 a night. The upper floors today are the location of the Water Street Hotel. Rooms run a bit more, but they’re pretty reasonable by today’s standards.

Both of the buildings I’ve shown today back up to Port Townsend Bay and share Water Street with buildings of the same vintage Victorian architecture. There is an interesting mix of small shops, galleries, boutiques, and restaurants. There are historic “ghost signs” on the brick walls of many buildings, some of which I posted here on Monday.

In the 1960s Port Townsend expanded its small boat building industry. Tomorrow I’ll visit PT’s saltier side.

Keeper’s Quarters

Here are the Keeper’s Quarters at the New Dungeness Light Station. Keepers originally were all housed in rooms in the Lighthouse building. The Keepers Quarters were constructed for the Officer-in-charge and completed in 1904. Families lived there continually until the last Coast Guard keepers left in 1994. There are three bedrooms and two baths, kitchen, dining room, and comfortable living room. A full basement houses laundry facilities, a pool/ping-pong table, and storage. There is a small, cozy “library” upstairs under the center dormer that serves as a perfect spot to curl up with a good book.

The kitchen is done in a “mid-century” style. It’s well-equipped, clean, and pleasant. Keepers usually share dinners and coordinate menus before they go out to the Lighthouse. Some previous keepers posted their dinner menus in the daily log and they clearly weren’t roughing it. My vegetarian chocolate chili suddenly seemed terribly modest.

Here’s one of the three bedrooms. It looks directly onto the lighthouse building. Other rooms face the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Dungeness Bay and the Olympic Mountains, or an unobstructed view of the Cascade Mountains to the east. Despite the building’s age, continual use for over 100 years, and location in a harsh environment it is in very good condition. I’ve stayed in newer coastal buildings that soak up the salt air and exude dankness. This one is clean and cheerful.

Keepers at the New Dungeness Light Station pay a weekly per person fee to stay here. They bring their own food, and perform volunteer tasks such as leading lighthouse tours, cleaning, watering, and mowing the lawn. It’s not a free ride, but is a way to give back for the privilege of an extraordinary experience and contributes to the efforts that keep the Light Station in its laudable condition. It appears to be a well run, successful model for historic preservation.

The New Dungeness Lighthouse Station is located in the middle of the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. Tomorrow I’ll show you three of our eagle sightings.

The light

The Strait of Juan de Fuca is a busy shipping channel and the Dungeness Spit is a serious navigational hazard as ships head into and out of Puget Sound and the more northerly straits leading to Canada. The New Dungeness Lighthouse flashes a beam of light that can be seen for 17 miles in clear weather, 12 times a minute and 17,280 times per day.

The lighthouse tower was originally 100 feet tall and the light was fueld by lard oil and magnified by a third order Fresnel lens. The tower was lowered to 63 feet in 1927 because of structural damage. The current light is a rotating six-sided bull’s-eye prism and is completely automated. The U.S. Coast Guard still changes the lights inside while the New Dungeness Light Station Association (NDLSA) maintains the building, grounds, and infrastructure of the Station.


The environment on Dungeness Spit, where the lighthouse is located, is harsh. NDLSA has been replacing the unique, curved windows of the lighthouse. You can see above what time and the elements have done to them. The Association spends about $100,000 a year on upkeep and has a long to-do list. Funds come from keeper stays, donations, and grants. Despite its age, the Light Station remains clean and beautiful. As volunteer keepers we were allowed full access to the light and the exterior catwalk around the light room. Payback? My husband polished all the brass in the room and the stairwell, renewing a relationship with Brasso that he hadn’t had since his Navy days.

New Dungeness Lighthouse

The New Dungeness Lighthouse is an important part of local history. It isn’t always in clear view and it’s not easy to get to. It’s at the end of Dungeness Spit, the longest natural sand spit in the U.S. Conquering the spit and exploring the lighthouse means a five mile walk on sand and rock each way, or an approach by water. You can sign up and pay to stay at the lighthouse for a week as a lighthouse keeper. There are chores, like cleaning the public restrooms and watering the lawn, but your rent also includes a roundtrip ride to the lighthouse. 

The lighthouse has been in continuous operation since 1857 and provides navigational aid to ships in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. I’ll post more about the New Dungeness Lighthouse in a week or two. Stay tuned!

Visitor Center

If you drive into Sequim from the east one of the first stops newcomers should make is at this building. It’s at the end of town on East Washington. The Chamber of Commerce hosts a visitor center here where Chamber members may display literature. There are free visitor guides, maps, and brochures for accommodations, events, and places of interest. It’s a useful place to find out what’s happening in Sequim and is staffed by volunteers who can get you pointed in the right direction.

Other colors at Purple Haze

Purple Haze is one of the earliest lavender farms in the region. In addition to gorgeous lavender fields the farm also has a guest house with a beautiful garden nearby. During the Lavender Faire in July lettuces in the raised boxes were just beginning to come into their own while the poppies and other blossoms were already gorgeous. Corn is growing in the background.