The Wild New Town of Penn’s Cove
Construction is booming at the head of Penn’s Cove as a new town rises, while residents grapple with a local scarlet rash and the arrival of a new real estate office.
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.
Coupeville, May 20.—The tug boat 'Hattie' brought in a tow of piles last Thursday for the wharves at this place, and to build the wharf at San Juan de Fuca, the new town which is being built at the head of Penn’s Cove. They have a hotel, two dwellings, and a boarding house about completed, and lumber is on the ground for the wharf and other buildings. We are having an epidemic of scarlet rash in town and vicinity. It is very mild, nothing serious resulting from it. The Coupevillians who were in Seattle last week were Mrs. J. A. Leach, Mrs. E. E. Watson, Mrs. James Monroe, Mrs. John Robertson, Miss Flora Cranney, and Miss Edna Monroe. Mr. Babcock, late of Kansas, who recently moved into the Coupe residence, has opened up a real estate office. There is a need of a restaurant in town. There will be an ice cream and strawberry festival at the town hall next Friday, under the auspices of the C.L.A.S., the proceeds to go towards paying for an organ. Refreshments will be served from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.
“There is a need of a restaurant in town.”
Coupeville, now a historic landmark town, retains much of the same quiet island charm it possessed in 1889, though the 'new town' construction booms of that era have long since stabilized. The mid-19th-century struggle to attract basic amenities like restaurants remains a familiar echo in rural Washington’s ongoing challenge to support expanding island populations.
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