Port Ludlow Wakes Up: New Boilers, a New Schooner, and a Boom in Houses
A correspondent's New Year letter from the sawmill town: the mill comes back to life after three dark weeks, a 140-foot vessel rises on the Hall ways for the Coos Bay coal trade, and even the hotelkeeper is building himself a house.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
For the WEEKLY ARGUS.
Port Ludlow, Jan. 5, 1876.
Editor Argus:
The New Year finds Port Ludlow in as flourishing a condition as its best friends could wish. The mill has been shut down for the past three weeks to make some needed repairs, and to connect the six new boilers recently placed in position in the new boiler house adjoining the mill with the engine. The substitution of these boilers for the old ones, and consequent changes, will add greatly to the capacity of the mill. The fine brick chimney, 70 feet high and 9 feet square at the base, was built by Mr. Mills, of Chimacum, who has in fact done all the masonry work in it in a most thorough and workmanlike manner. The mill will recommence sawing Jan. 6th.
The French bark Francois Joseph is here to load for South America.
The Messrs. Hall have a fine vessel on the stocks — one of the largest yet built by them here. Her dimensions are as follows: 140 feet keel; 36 feet beam; 10 feet hold; 30 feet centre board. Captain Hall informs me that she will have the best frame ever put into a vessel on Puget Sound, and the same opinion is expressed by every one competent to judge. She will have all modern appliances, including Capt. Hall's improved stern post; will be three masted, with fore and aft rig, and is intended for the Coos Bay coal trade; will be launched about the middle of April.
In addition to the mill and shipbuilding interests there is quite a lively time among the house carpenters. Our genial host of the Phoenix Hotel, Mr. R. D. Attridge, has a fine two-story house which is fast approaching completion, and intended for a private residence for himself and family. Also, one of our most highly-esteemed townsmen, who proposes soon to join the "noble army of the Benedicts" (I came near writing "martyrs"), has laid the foundation for a house of about the same size as Mr. Attridge's. In addition to the above, Mr. —— proposes making extensive building improvements the coming spring and summer.
“One of our most highly-esteemed townsmen, who proposes soon to join the "noble army of the Benedicts" (I came near writing "martyrs"), has laid the foundation for a house.”
Port Ludlow's great mill is gone — the town is now a resort and retirement community — but the arithmetic in this letter is instantly familiar: a single plant's boiler refit idles a whole crew, and the town's fortunes rise and fall with it. Every mill town on the Sound, and plenty of one-employer towns today, still lives inside that same anxious ledger.
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