Yesterday Port Townsend put on a tour of historic buildings throughout the town. The buildings were well staffed by volunteer staff and all proceeds went to the hospital. We found the first and the last visits the most interesting. The bottom photo shows the house of Lucinda Hastings and was in its time the biggest house in Port Townsend. Her husband was a real mover and shaker: co-founder of Portland Oregon, and a business tycoon who left Lucinda worth $600 million. She became a mover and shaker herself. We spoke with her great-great-great grand daughter, also named Lucinda, in the kitchen of the house.
The last visit was to the Palace Hotel, whose 15 rooms are named after various ladies of pleasure during the years when the building was a brothel upstairs and a saloon downstairs. The hotel was built by Captain Tibbals. He went to sea at the age of 10 and was a captain by the age of 20. He was one of the early users of the new-fangled diving bell and used one to recover treasure from a Spanish wreck in the Caribbean that netted him a fortune of $68,000. (Beats working in an office for 30 years.)
The fourth photo is of me in one of the hotel rooms. We also toured the auto museum, which I have already covered, as well as a variety of other houses all built before the crash of 1893.
During our town walkabout we photographed other houses of interest and some deer who have been forced to accommodate the suburban invasion.
1 comment:
Mmmm I thought deer were more common in Japan for tourists. The houses are fascinating.
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