PHOTO BY ANDY PORTER
port townsend.
Small town with old world authenticity
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VICTORIAN FLAIR AND RED BRICK BUILDINGS DOWNTOWN ON THE WATERFRONT make Port Townsend a rare combination of the Pacific Northwest lifestyle and old world flair. This port town on the eastern edge of the Olympic Peninsula once aspired to be a regional center on the level of Seattle or Vancouver and for good reason – in 1887, it was Puget Sound’s sole U.S. Customs port of entry. Those big city dreams never materialized – poorly timed recessions stopped the railroad from reaching Port Townsend, the town wilted in the early 1900s. Today, Port Townsend’s renaissance is fully accomplished and its mention evokes wooden boats, historic buildings, music, art and proximity to nature. A bluff on one side and Port Townsend Bay on the other hem in Port Townsend’s remarkable downtown district. Its architecture is a visual feast, with abundant 19th and early 20th century buildings that landed the entire downtown district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Two- and three-story Victorians with high-arched windows
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