I learned a lot about Port Orchard when I was working on our coverage advancing the city’s 125th anniversary celebration on Saturday.
See a listing of anniversary events planned for Saturday, by clicking here.
Back to my story research, I thought I knew the closest mayoral race in the town’s history. See if you know by taking our trivia quiz. I’ll give you a hint, it was not the 2011 race between then-incumbent Lary Coppola and now-incumbent Tim Matthes.
I also was amazed to find how many buildings in the city,
especially in the downtown core, date to the first half of the 20th
Century.
According to
a map of historic buildings on the city of Port Orchard’s
website, quite a number are from the ’oughts, ’teens and ’20s,
and there’s even a few from the late 1800s. You can find out more
about Port
Orchard’s historic buildings at the Sidney Museum and Arts
Association, which hosted its annual historic homes tour in
July.
SMMA’s own building at the corner of Prospect and Sidney is an old Masonic hall dating to 1908, listed on the Washington Heritage Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places.
Given the age of the architecture, it’s small wonder talk of ghosts bubbles up around the town. Rumor has it the Old Central Hotel building, now the Olde Central Antique Mall, is haunted.
Another restless spirit is reputed to live in the yard abutting Prospect Street that is part of the Olympic Bike & Skate property owned by Fred Karakas. According to local historian Bryan Petro, the property was homesteaded by a man named Campbell who married a Native American woman. When she and their two boys died of a fever, Campbell is said to have buried them on the homestead.
“That’s why nothing is built there,” Petro said. “We’ve been told that’s haunted. It’s probably by her.”
Karakas says the burial was on the property of the building next door, which he also owns. The building once housed a tarot card reader who got strong vibes from the place, Karakas said.
Well, isn’t that the way with history? There are sometimes multiple versions of a story. Karakas and Petro also disagree on the origin of the name “Fathoms ‘O Fun,” the organization that has hosted Port Orchard’s summer parade and Fourth of July fireworks show since the late 1960s.
According to Petro, 56, city leaders decided to ax the Days of
’49, a Wild West themed annual festival involving much boozing and
debauchery.
The festival was
supposed the hearken back to the city’s rough and tumble logging
days. Mock shoot-outs, stage scenery jails and pretend hangings on
Bay Street were a few of the reasons the city curbed its enthusiasm
in favor of a tamer summer celebration initially called Sunfest (or
Sun Fest). Petro says that name was claimed by another community,
and “Fathoms ‘O Fun” was the replacement.
Karakas, in his 70s, said he arrived in town shortly after the Days of ’49 ended. But the festival died an unwilling death, according to Karakas. The wild and crazy times lived on, if diminished, in the Dinghy Derby race, which involved fake cannon shots and again, considerable boozing, according to Karakas. The dinghy races were part of Sunfair (or Sun Fair) Karakas concedes, but as to the origin of Fathoms, it came from a Sunfair T-shirt, a motto of the year. The following year, there were leftover T-shirts, and the organizing committee, of which Karakas was part, just taped over the year and used them again. (This is very much Karakas’ modus operandi). Thus Fathoms ‘O Fun became ingrained in Port Orchard’s memory bank and history.
One other little piece of trivia from the odds and ends bin, do
you know which downtown business operates in a building that used
to house a brothel upstairs? Find the answer, and test your
knowledge of Port Orchard’s legend and lore against the folks in
this video.
See a timeline of Port Orchard’s history by clicking here.
