The Great Room Shortage: Port Townsend’s Hotels Burst at the Seams
As Portland investors pour money into the Puget Sound city, locals warn that seven hotels aren't enough—residents are begging for permanent housing before the next boom hits.
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.
PORT TOWNSEND NEWS. Newspaper Change—Hotel Accommodations Overtaxed.
Port Townsend, Jan. 18.—It is said that the 'V. of Washington' has been sold. At present information on the matter is very meager, but the natural feeling about town is a hope that it will now be run more regularly.
The Tacoma agency of the Board of Trade will be in a very few days, and the opening of a similar office in Portland is contemplated. The people of this city are at last awakening to the necessities of letting the people outside of this city know the great advantages and possibilities that exist here.
The necessity of more hotel accommodations is becoming more apparent every day. The influx of strangers is so great that there is not a vacant room in any of the seven hotels that is unoccupied for any time, and it is feared that the same experience will be had here as was the case in both Seattle and Tacoma last spring. The large hotel upon the hill will be pushed to a finish as soon as men and money can complete it. This will be a help, but the want of a large first-class hotel is becoming so evident that Mr. Lowe has decided to begin the construction immediately of his large hotel upon the corner of Water and Taylor streets.
However, hotels are not the only want. What is needed more is houses and cottages, as the people come here for homes more than transient accommodations.
Mr. Cleveland of Portland is in town and reports that there is considerable interest in Portland about this city, and predicts that a very large amount of Portland money will be invested here this coming spring and summer.
This 1906 report on Port Townsend’s housing crisis mirrors the modern struggle in Washington’s coastal cities. Just as today's residents face skyrocketing rents and a lack of inventory due to tourism and second-home investors, the citizens of Port Townsend were already warning that transient hotel capacity could not sustain a growing permanent population—a tension between short-term profit and long-term community stability.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.