I’ve been thinking a lot about a conversation I had with the owner of Bremerton’s Quonset hut last week. Andrew Johnston, the hut’s owner who now lives in Jefferson County, gave a varied review of Bremerton — some good, some bad.
Johnston moved to Bremerton sometime around 2000, an owner in a long line who was drawn to the Quonset hut’s peculiar and industrially-inclined space. He was intrigued by the city’s various neighborhoods and how mixed they were socioeconomically and racially.
He was distressed, however, by several problem homes nearby. He got tired of the police calls, traffic and noise at all hours and a near certainty that there were drugs being sold and drugs being done. (If you’ve lived in the city for any length of time, you know what he’s talking about.)
Even within that Quonset hut, a nearly indestructible Navy relic, that stuff could get to you. It made Johnston wonder, just as we all have wondered: how could such a pretty place have such seedy elements?
“Bremerton should be a gem,” he told me. “This should be one of the most sought after communities in the entire Puget Sound.”
And yet, Johnston, who is trying to sell the hut, also had a fondness for the place. He saw it as that melting pot — “what America aspires to be,” he told me.
“Kind of like mixed nuts,” he said.
Welcome to a city of mixed nuts.
Related nuts note: Just don’t go shucking peanuts on the sidewalk. Or do. It’s not actually against the law.
Inside Bremerton’s Quonset HutCOMING SATURDAY: Ever wonder what the inside of Bremerton’s Quonset Hut, a residence and relic of the city’s Navy past, looks like? Find out in Saturday’s Kitsap Sun.
Posted by Josh Farley on Friday, May 8, 2015
I can see a whole series of these interviews with downtown residents. Would be really interesting! Just yesterday while out on a walk my husband and I had a great impromptu convo with a neighbor about our B-town on the corner of 6th and Washington.
Can’t wait to see inside! I talked to my artist hubby about buying this place after we moved here last year. I’m sure it’s not exactly child-proofed for our littles but certainly fun for our eclectic spirit!
I find this article offensive and condescending. It reduces the criminals in this city to a cute little colloquialism and completely ignores the hardships that people have been burdened and strapped with. Should we also tell our children, if they are perhaps raped, “Sorry darlin’ life is like a box chocolates. You never know what you’ll get.”