James & Sarah Thompson House - Port Gamble, WA
N 47° 51.092 W 122° 35.048
10T E 531110 N 5299882
This historic house is located along State Route 104 in the historic town of Port Gamble in Kitsap County, WA.
Waymark Code: WMGB3E
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 02/08/2013
Views: 4
Visitors to the historic town of
Port Gamble are inundated with historical elements throughout the township. Almost every building in this town contains a historical marker that highlights the history of prior occupants. Each marker stands out nicely on painted burgundy boards and gold lettering. The Thompson House contains a marker on the front white picketed fence that reads:
1859
JAMES & SARAH THOMPSON HOUSE
This is the oldest continuously occupied house
in the state of Washington.
James Thompson came to Port Gamble on the schooner Towana and
his descendants lived in the home for more than 99 years.
The Thompsons owned the house as private property and paid
the company an annual ground rent of $1.00 per year.
James and Sarah raised their 5 children here where son and
grandson followed James as saw filers in the mill. |
I located a very nice website, HistoryLink.org, that highlights the history of this residence and says the following:
The Thompson house is one of the oldest continuously occupied houses in Washington state. It was built in at least three stages, the original in 1859, then in 1864 and the last addition in 1872. James A. Thompson sharpened and cared for saws, a specialized skill. Once incentive the Puget Mill Company used to retain men like him was to encourage them to build homes of their own on company land. The Thompson family was one of six who owned their house as private property and paid an annual ground rent of $1 to the company. The families built their houses with materials furnished by the company "with the understanding that when the parties building them should move away from town that the houses should be the property of the Puget Mill Company, free of purchase money, the occupants agreeing to leave the Puget Mill Company in peaceable possession of the same."
James Thompson, a native of Rhode Island and Maine, reportedly worked for the Pope family in East Machias before sailing to Port Gamble in 1859. Family history relates that Thompson sharpened and cared for the saws in Port Gamble almost until the day of his death in 1911. A source states, "In his work at East Machias, James A. had learned to file but he had not learned to give saws the proper tension. This was tremendously important in sawing the big timber that came into the Port Gamble mill. A professional saw hammerer who had drunk away his money and his job taught James how to tension a saw. It took three days and for it he got free passage on a company ship to San Francisco."
James and his wife Sarah raised their family of five in the house at Port Gamble. Their son Will and grandson Robert followed James as saw filers at Puget Mill, each taught by his father.
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This house, along with the majority of homes and businesses in Port Gamble, is owned by Pope Resources and maintained by Olympic Property Group and many homes and buildings are available from rent/lease throughout the year.