Steilacoom struts its stuff
Tucked away on the shores of Puget Sound, overlooking the Olympic Mountains, Steilacoom — Washington’s oldest incorporated town — is marking its 150th birthday this year and can’t seem to stop celebrating. The highlight of the yearlong festivities will take place Aug. 21 when the spry sesquicentenarian kicks up its heels, transforming the downtown areas of Lafayette Street and Pioneer Park into a community playground and time capsule to the past.
A sign at the northern entrance to town boasts of its many firsts: Washington’s first port, the site of the first Protestant church, first courthouse north of the Columbia River, first school, first public library, first brewery—and first territorial jail.
Although firmly planted in the 21st century, Steilacoom brims with stories about the way things used to be. Over the years, the town has seen its ups and downs. But ever since local preservationists organized to keep its pioneer heritage alive, volunteerism has flourished.
And playing together seems equally popular in this community of 6,000, which hosts yearly Fourth of July extravaganzas, salmon bakes, apple squeezes and other festivities. Even the inconvenience of a power outage for installation of new equipment can give rise to a town-wide wiener roast on one of its beaches.
A New England fishing village look-alike, seemingly transposed from Atlantic to Northwest shores, Steilacoom can, in a sense, trace its origins to the opposite coast.
In 1851, Lafayette Balch, a sea captain from Maine, began exploring the Northwest for timber to supply the building materials sought by gold miners in San Francisco. After being turned away from Olympia, he dropped anchor about 20 miles north in the heavily forested hillside waterfront of Steilacoom.
Encouraged by the abundance of timber as well as the protection afforded by nearby Fort Steilacoom, he established a donation claim for the town of Port of Steilacoom and built a store and house with precut timber from Maine. The settlement that resulted soon made it possible for Balch to fill his ships with profit-making cargo as they sailed in either direction, bringing lumber to the south and supplies for the new town upon his return north.
Later the same year, John Chapman, a strong advocate for the establishment of a separate Washington Territory north of the Columbia River, staked an adjoining claim to the west of Balch’s to establish what he called Steilacoom City. Two years later the Territory became a reality and, in 1854, passed an act incorporating Balch’s and Chapman’s claims into one town.
One of its earliest settlers was the pioneer carpenter and wagon maker Nathaniel Orr, who set up a cabinet shop and planted a commercial orchard. Sixteen years later he met and married Emma Thompson, a young strawberry blonde from Canada, and converted his wagon shop into a home, eventually building a new place next door to turn out everything from chairs to spinning wheels.
In 1972, the Orr home, until then continuously occupied by family members, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, as much for its 120-year old orchard as for its rare pioneer box construction. The home has since been restored — using the original furnishings bought in 19th-century Victoria, B.C. — and, along with Orr’s wagon shop, reopened as a museum.
The adjoining orchard’s fruit trees have played a major role in anchoring Steilacoom’s history, town historian Joan Curtis points out.
“First there was the discovery of an apple species already considered extinct,” Curtis says. “Then, when the Orr home was being repositioned in 1996 to preserve its unique structure, it began a rapid slide down the hillside, stopped only when a stalwart pear tree in the orchard held its ground and saved the house from destruction.”
Despite the six years of fund-raising and labor it took to lift the house, perch it atop a new foundation and refurbish it, the Steilacoom Historical Museum Association persevered in the spirit of the “the little train that could.”
Visitors can begin to capture the flavor of Steilacoom’s early days at The Bair, a “living museum” at Wilkes and Lafayette streets which has worn multiple hats as post office, hardware, pharmacy and candy store. Enjoy breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea (by reservation), homemade ice cream or a Green River from the 1906 marble-topped soda fountain while you amble among mortars and pestles, chocolate-flavored cod liver oil, gold scales and a safe blown out in an 1893 robbery.
At The Bair you can also pick up a free touring map of the town’s historical homes and sites. Check out the 1858 Phillip Keach house on Commercial Street, known to town residents as Rolling Hill House, another of the first town buildings to be placed on the National Register of Historical Sites. In 1990, Milt Davidson and his wife moved back to his family home. He smiles as he points to the century-old variegated juniper in his front yard that was his fort in his growing-up years. “Not a drop of rain every touched me under there,” he says.
Farther up the hill is the oldest Catholic church in the state, the Immaculate Conception Catholic Mission, which originally stood on nearby Fort Steilacoom. In order to serve the needs of new Catholic settlers arriving on the Oregon Trail, the building was taken down, board by board, in 1864 and hauled by wagon to its present site where it continues in regular Sunday use.
Shortly after Balch, the lure of gold to the north brought Maine seaman and merchant Edwin R. Rogers to town. In 1891 he built the 17-room Victorian mansion that overlooks Puget Sound and now draws diners from miles around to enjoy dinner or Sunday brunch amidst its fine period furnishings.
At Festival 150 on Aug. 21, antique cars will line the streets from Lafayette to Commercial amidst re-enactments, chances to try one’s hand at “the way we were” and the sounds of barbershop quartets, fiddlers and jazz that will fill the air from 10 a.m. until a final evening band concert.
Old-fashioned games like hoops will be played in Pioneer Park, led by guides from the Ft. Nisqually Interpretative Center. Those who successfully follow scavenger hunt clues will collect prizes and there will also be a free raffle. The evening drawing of the winning ticket will award its holder (who must be present to win) a grand-prize outing for two.
A petting farm will offer everything from ponies, pheasants, emus and bunnies to pigs, llamas and goats. Those who seek more excitement can enter a pie-eating contest, try the tug of war or head for the waterfront to take in one of the tomahawk-throwing demonstrations at Pioneer Park.
Not yet had your fill of politics this year? Take in some of the stump speeches by current office-seekers on the sidewalks near the Steilacoom Tribal Cultural Center and Museum. There, visitors will also be able to enjoy tribal dancing and Native American storytelling. Inside the museum, visitors can learn more about the history of the Puget Sound Salish people who first inhabited the area.
Throughout the day, experts like the Paul Bunyan Mountain Men and Women’s Primitive Skills Group will present demonstrations of what “busy” used to mean, with chances to see and learn flint-knapping, spinning, blacksmithing, beekeeping, candle and soap making, archery, basket making, hands-on quilt and doll making, basket weaving, tatting, rug braiding and a myriad of other skills and arts.
The Ezra Meeker Oregon Trail wagon will also be in town for the day. A Time Walk in Pioneer Park will highlight events that took place during the same chronological periods in Steilacoom, the rest of the county and throughout the world.
By day’s end, you will have been carried back a century and a half in time. As Harriet Gillem Robinet, author of historical novels for children, puts it: “How can we know where we’re going, or appreciate where we are, if we don’t know where we’re coming from?”
If you go:
Town Festival 150
When: Saturday, Aug. 21, 10 a.m.-8:30 p.m.
Where: Steilacoom, Wash. Take I-90 west to I-5 south. Avoid Seattle by proceeding south on I-405 until it reconnects with I-5 south. Continue just past Tacoma and Lakewood to Steilacoom-Dupont (Exit 119) and follow signs to Steilacoom.
What: A day of fun, pioneer crafts, music and activities for the whole family, followed by the Steilacoom Historical Museum Association (SHMA) Road Show of Hand Tools and Farm Implements on Aug. 22 at the Orr Wagon Shop, 1-4 p.m.
Food: On Aug. 21, an old-fashioned picnic meal may be brought in or purchased for a nominal fee.
The Bair Restaurant, 1617 Lafayette Street, open daily (summers) 8 a.m.-3 p.m. and Fridays, 5 p.m.-9 p.m. for dinner, (253) 588-9668.
Robyn’s Nest Country Mercantile, 1606 Lafayette Street, 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Friday; 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday; 12 p.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, (253) 581-8599.
E. R. Rogers Restaurant, 1702 Commercial Street, 5:30-9:30 p.m., Monday-Thursday; 5 p.m.-10:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and 4:30-9:30 p.m. Sunday. Reservations strongly recommended: (253) 582-0280. Cocktail lounge opens daily at 4:30 p.m.
Lodging: Numerous accommodations can be found in adjoining Lakewood or Tacoma, the closest of which is Best Western Lakewood Motor Inn, 6125 Motor Ave. SW, Lakewood, WA 98499, (253) 584-2212, $66-$98.
Above The Sound bed and breakfast, 806 Birch Street, two-room adaptable suite with private entrance and bath, $75-$90, (253) 589-1441 or e-mail abovesound@aol.com
On Anderson Island, a short ferry ride away, the newly renovated bed and breakfast Anderson House at Oro Bay offers five rooms, each with private bath, $119-$139, (253) 884-4088, (800) 750-4088 (for reservations only) or check www.non.com/anderson.