Best Friends Antiques
Port Gamble, Washington
"The Kitsap Peninsula village of Port Gamble, located on a bay of the same name on Hood Canal, is one of the only surviving examples of a nineteenth century company town. It traces its roots back to the arrival of San Francisco timber entrepreneurs Josiah Keller, William Talbot, Andrew Pope, and Charles Foster in 1853, just months after Washington gained territorial status. Their succession of mills remained in operation until 1995, and many of the New England-style homes and stores that once served Port Gamble workers are now being restored by Olympic Property Group for residential and commercial uses bridging the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries.
"The owners of the Puget Mill Co. believed that if they provided good homes and a stable community for their workers, they would profit from higher productivity. The owners of Puget Mill Co. hailed from East Machias, Maine, and they recruited many of their earliest skilled workers from there. Port Gamble grew to resemble a New England town of the era with gabled homes, a steepled church, and elm trees...
"By the 1870s the community could boast athletic teams, a library and reading room, a dramatic club, and a school. Managers and skilled workers got the best homes and some employees built their own houses. Company houses had indoor plumbing and electricity almost as soon as those conveniences became available. Residents enjoyed the services of a medical clinic, a store, a school, a community hall, annual celebrations, even a mortuary and a cemetery.
In the 1930s, many of the smaller houses were sold and moved. Older buildings such as the schoolhouse and the Puget Hotel were demolished in subsequent decades when they could no longer be used. Through the end of the twentieth century, Port Gamble continued to function as a company town, providing homes to sawmill workers, a store, and other community services.
In 1995, the sawmill closed, but Port Gamble did not. Pope Resources still owns the town and property and Olympic Property Group rents the commercial buildings and residences. Port Gamble has become a tourist attraction and a destination for special events and ceremonies." (See Link 1, be sure to take the virtual tours of Port Gamble.)
A-Port Gamble, Washington (Mapquest)
The white house with the picket fence in the photo above is Best Friends Antiques at 32239 Ranier Avenue NE. (See Link 2.) It was built in "1900-1901" in Port Ludlow. It was "barged over from Port Ludlow sometime after 1921 as employment at Port Ludlow dropped after the mill closed in 1935. The house is named the Morrill Pope House, as Morrill Pope was the mill superintendent at Port Ludlow. He was also a distant relative of Andrew Pope." (Shana Smith, town manager.) (See Link 1.)
SW 1940 lead figure Christmas display
Note: As a child in Milwaukee, Wisconsin part of the family Christmas display was a scene of lead skaters. They were purchased by my mother in the 1940's. After my parents died, in 1966 and 1967 they became part of my annual Christmas display. In 2005 when I visited the Best Friends Antique Shop in Port Gamble I found 6 additions to my display: two male skater(in orange and green), a figure skater, Santa, a sleigh, and a reindeer. All the pieces are lead and made in the 1940's. The display is pictured in the photo above.
Thank you: To Shana Smith for her e mail detailing the history of Best Friends Antiques.
Photo: Top photo taken in Port Gamble in 2005 by SW. Bottom photo taken in 2010 in my living room, SW.
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