A Wedding Gift of Waterfront Land
A Kitsap County marriage is marked by a generous, high-stakes wedding present of property near the U.S. dry dock.
An event near Bremerton, Kitsap county, whereat relatives and friends mingled joyous congratulations, occurred at the home of Mr. Warren Smith, where his only son, James B. Smith, was joined in marriage with Miss Lucy G. Hamley. It was just noon of Wednesday, May 17, 1893. At its conclusion the bridegroom was presented with a deed to a plot of ground adjoining the United States dry dock reservation, valued at $5,000, by Mr. and Mrs. Warren Smith.
“The bridegroom was presented with a deed to a plot of ground adjoining the United States dry dock reservation, valued at $5,000.”
A $5,000 land gift in 1893 near a dry dock was a substantial fortune, likely linked to the early growth of what would become the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. It highlights how private family wealth in the Pacific Northwest was frequently tied to federal industrial infrastructure.
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