A Walk Through the Oysterville Historic District
The following illustrations and descriptions are taken from
the Walking Tour of Oysterville, a brochure produced by ORF with the talented
participation of writer Sydney Stevens and artist Patricia Fagerland. When you
visit Oysterville, stop by the Church to pick a copy and to begin your walking
tour of the Historic District. In the meantime, you can preview the village
right here! Click here to open a map of the
village. The numbered descriptions below correspond with the numbers on the
map. While all primary structures are listed here, only those which are on the
National Register or are of particular significance are illustrated and
described in detail.
1. The Oysterville Church - 1892
Built at a cost of $1500, the church was a gift to the Baptist denomination by
R. H. Espy. No regular services have
been held here since the mid-1930s. In 1980 the church was rededicated as an
ecumenical house of worship. Music Vesper services conducted by ministers from
various churches on the peninsula are held Sundays from mid-June through Labor
Day Weekend. All are welcome to "come as you are."
2. Johnson Homesite - 1870 - 1896
The Johnsons were one of many Native American families who lived in Oysterville
in its early days.
3. W. D. Taylor House - 1870
This house was constructed by early Loomis Stage Line driver, W. D. Taylor, who
later built the Taylor Hotel in Ocean Park. Behind the house are the remains of
later owner Tommy Nelson's commercial oyster smoking business which operated
from the 1930s to the mid-1950s.
4.
The Red Cottage - 1863
This, the oldest surviving structure in the village, was built by Captain J. W.
Munson and until 1875 was the site of Oysterville's first Pacific County
Courthouse. It was once owned by local author Willard R. Espy, a grandson of
R.H. Espy. The pink rose on the picket fence is an 1870 variety, "Dorothy
Perkins."
5. Michael Parker House - 1992
6. Chris Freshley Cabin - 1980
7. Larry Freshley Cabin - 1995
8.
Ned Osborne House - 1873
Osborne arrived in Oysterville in 1866 aboard the schooner Sailor Boy along with
his good friend and neighbor, Charles Nelson. He began building this house for
his bride-to-be, continuing to work on it even though she jilted him before the
wedding date. When she married another, however, Osborne stopped building and
never completed the upstairs bedrooms. He lived a bachelor all his life in this
house.
9. Charles Nelson House - 1873
Like his next door neighbor, Nelson was born in Kalmar, Sweden.The two sailed
together as young men, eventually settling in Oysterville. Mrs. Nelson's lovely
garden featured old-fashioned flowers and paths made of sparkling white, crushed
native oyster shell. Many Nelson desce dents live in the area.
10. Nordquist House - 1994
11. The Meadow
In the meadow across from the Red Cottage a stone bench has been placed so that
visitors might sit and view the bay. On it, inscribed in Willard Espy's hand, is
a line from his book, The Road to Grandpa's House.
12. Holway House - 1949
13. Tom Crellin House - 1869
Like many of the old houses in the village, the Tom Crellin house was built of
redwood lumber brought north as ballast on oyster schooners out of San
Francisco. In 1892, after the Crellin family had moved to California, R. H. Espy
purchased the house to serve as a parsonage for the new Baptist church. Since
1902 it has been occupied by Espy descendents.
14. Wachsmuth House & Cottages - 1939
15.
Courthouse Sign
This wooden plaque was placed on July 4, 1976 during Oysterville's bicentennial
celebration when the village was granted its National Historic District status.
It marks the site of the old Pacific County Courthouse, the first tax-financed
building constructed in the county.
16. Oysterville Schoolhouse - 1907
This is the third and last school in Oysterville and was used by Pacific County
School District #1 until consolidation in 1957. The first school was a
prefabricated building of "red wood" made in California and shipped aboard one
of the oyster schooners in 1863. The booming community soon outgrew the "little
red schoolhouse" and in 1874 a two-story building was built on this site,
serving the community until it burned down in 1905.
17. Hampson House - 1987
18. Wilson-Codega House - 1993
19. John Crellin House - 1867
The house was built by Tom Crellin's older brother using plans he brought from
his native Isle of Man. From the bay it is obvious that both Crellin houses (the
white and green) were built using the same plans, though younger brother Tom
added bay windows and a bit more gingerbread to his. From 1920 until WWII this
was the site of the Heckes Inn, listed in the Duncan Hines Travel Guides as an
outstanding eating place. The Monterey Cypress trees in front were brought from
California in the 1890s as ballast on an oyster schooner.
20. Smith Cabin - c.1920
21. Kepner House - 2004
22. Jacobs House - 1991
23. Kemmer House - c. 1920
24. R. H. Espy
House - 1871
Robert Hamilton Espy, co-founder of Oysterville, built this house in 1871,
shortly after he married. From 1854 until that time he had lived in a log cabin
about 100 feet south and across the road. The "Red House" has remained in the
Espy family for six generations.
25. Stoner House - 1905
Dewitt Stoner, a bachelor living with his mother, first built a small house just
east of the present house on the same lot and built this larger house when he
married. Until recently it was the site of the last remaining windmill in
Oysterville - a structure that was part of almost every property before
electricity came to the village in the late 1930s.
26. Fire Station - circa 1978
27. Janke House - 1910
28.
Captain Stream House - 1878
A.T. Stream came to this country in 1860 from his native Norway, arriving in the
Shoalwater Bay area in 1867. He was in Oysterville at the time of the 1870
census, but lived at various times at Tokeland, South Bend, and finally at
Klipsan, which was named by him after the Indian word for sunset. He
distinguished himself as a member of the United States Lifesaving Service and
was well-known for his racing expertise in the annual regattas sponsored by
Oysterville's Shoalwater Bay Yacht Club.
29. The Bunk House - 1959
30. The Cannery - 1940
The Northern Oyster Company, begun in the 1930s by Ted Holway, Glenn Heckes, and
Roy Kemmer, operated as a cannery until 1967. Now it is the home of Oysterville
Sea Farms, selling fresh oysters and other local products. Though no longer a
cannery, it is the only structure remaining in Oysterville that gives testimony
to the settlement's original reason for being.
31. Friedlander/Thurston House - 1994
32. Eddie Freshley House - 1982
33. de Marcken/Freeman House - 2004
34. Hausler Cabin - 1989
35. Merton Andrews House - c. 1935
36. The Andrews Garage - c. 1900
37. Carl Andrews House - c. 1940
38.
The Oysterville Store & Post Office - 1919
The Oysterville Post Office has operated in Oysterville since 1858 and is the
oldest continuously run Post Office
under the same name in Washington. It has been in its present location since
1919 when Bert and Minnie Andrews began the Oysterville Store.
39. Bert Andrews House - 1907
40.
Oysterville Cemetery - 1858
Begun in 1858 on land donated by F.C. Davis, the old section of the cemetery
contains the graves of many pioneer families. Near the entrance is the grave of
Chief Nahcati who befriended R. H. Espy and showed him the oyster beds and for
whom Nahcotta, a village three miles south of here, is named. Just to the south,
near the marker which reads "And the sea gave up its dead..." are the graves of
unknown sailors who washed ashore nearby in the early days of Oysterville.
Thanks to Sydney Stevens for this text and to Patricia Fagerland for her
illustration.