Looking back: June 7, 2017

Posted

110 years ago (1907)

“Local fleas will be required to submit to thorough examination according to the marine hospital service, which is seeking scientific information on the different varieties of the pestiferous insect. Specimens of rodents will be captured as a starter and compelled to give up the little travelers that they carried concealed about themselves.”

100 years ago (1917)

Port Townsend High School graduates a class of 20.

90 years ago (1927)

Port Townsend High School graduates a class of 13. Chimacum graduates seven, including sports legend Tommy Yarr.

60 years ago (1957)

The state is to pay the Port of Port Townsend $130,000 for the Fort Worden property to cover the purchase price ($106,000) plus caretaking costs and insurance. The port bought the surplus property in 1956 knowing it would go to the state Department of Institutions. The port is keeping 1,200 feet of waterfront.

35 years ago (1982)

George Lund, the sixth owner of a drug store in the McCurdy Building, is closing O’Neill Pharmacy, with the corner space to become the Kitchen Kove. The original building opened with a hotel, restaurant, tavern, jeweler and a drug store, and it was a drug store business that lasted 95 years.

Chimacum High School junior Mark Wurtz wins his second straight class AA-A state golf championship.

Jeff Lucia wins a $100 prize for suggesting the winning name, Logger’s Landing, in a contest to rename the Breakfast Nook restaurant in Quilcene.

20 years ago (1997)

The Port Townsend High School Class of 1997 has four valedictorians who never received a grade lower than an A: Valerie Hamm, Alisa Meany, Chanoane Rosenthal and Richard Tso.

Merchants and residents dedicated to solving the behavioral problems created by some Uptown area frequenters – including some unruly young adults thought to be homeless transients – meet at the community center.

The Port of Port Townsend opens a new public walkway atop the Point Hudson jetty.

“Prompted by what may be an increase in alcohol-related crimes, owners of taverns and stores selling beer and wine gathered last week with a police officer and the state Liquor Control Board.”

“DNA testing is being implemented in a criminal case in which a Port Townsend man is accused of raping a young girl after befriending her.”

“The Port Townsend American Legion post has reached a crossroads again on the bumpy journey to respectability it’s been traveling the past two years.”

(Compiled by Patrick J. Sullivan. Sources: Leader Collection; Jefferson County Historical Society Museum and Research Center, 13692 Airport Cutoff Road, Port Townsend; Jefferson County Historical Society, 379-6673, jchsmuseum.org; jchswa.org, the online search site)