One of Bremerton’s most historic and picturesque streets won’t become Navy property anytime soon — though word was it could have.
Rumors have been circulating on Gregory Way — which runs parallel to the edge of the Navy’s Bremerton base and the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard — of a federal takeover.
Mary Whitney, whose family home has been on the street half a century, said she’d heard the Navy was interested in expanding its buffer with the city. I started looking into the claim myself, and while it is entirely possible the Navy discussed the option, the Navy officially went public with the rumor being a “myth.”
In a recently released joint-land use study, the Navy addressed the idea head on.
I also confirmed that with Navy Spokeswoman Silvia Klatman.
“The rumor that the Navy would like to purchase Gregory Way property as a buffer has been circulated for a few years and was addressed most recently in the Joint Land Use Study,” Klatman told me. “The Navy currently has no plans or funding requests to purchase property on Gregory Way.”
If you haven’t visited Gregory Way, you’re missing out on a beautiful trek through venerable architecture and formidable trees. Heidi Witherspoon, who wrote a story for the Sun about the street’s revival in 2001, described it this way: “Craftsman bungalows mingle with Mediterranean stucco villas and English-style brick cottages.” There are also towering conifers that date back to the city’s roots.
It’s also the same street upon which Frank Wetzel, author and editor of the “Victory Gardens & Barrage Balloons” that chronicled Bremerton’s war years, grew up.
It was once Second Street until the Navy changed it to honor a Navy captain named Luther Gregory.
Dear Navy,
Please feel free to “take” the immediate 6 blocks of downtown for your use. Your apathy towards the economic slaughter from the employee parking issues created by your existence keep killing off any of the benefits that might have been gained by the $500 million in taxpayers subsidized improvements. In fact you would be doing the rest of us a favor by eliminating politically stacked deck playing field that heavily favors the developer housing crowd and their also subsidized tax breaks over the needs of the average citizen. You would also be moving out the Dicks Center and Media outlets to other parts of the city so that they can be reminded that Bremerton is so much more than just the 6 blocks in the lunch box district. Thank you for your consideration.