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JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
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Commanding Officer's Quarters The Commanding Officer's Quarters is located at Fort Worden State Park & Conference Center, 200 Battery Way, Port Townsend. The house is one of Fort Worden's finest buildings. It was completed in April 1904, and many different families resided there. Located at the head of Officers Row, the Commanding Officers Quarters overlooks Admiralty Inlet, with Mt. Baker and the Cascades in the background. Late Victorian and Edwardian furnishings provide a unique glimpse into the life of a senior U. S. Army officer and his family in the first decade of the 20th century. Click HERE for a tour. Hours are 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., May through September. Admission is $4 for adults; free for historical society members. Special group tours can be arranged by calling 360-385-1003.
Administration
Buildings across the Parade Ground
Directions to Fort Worden Map of Fort Worden
Admission is $4.00 for adults and $1.00 for children 3-12. A passport is available for visitors to see the COQ museum, Rothschild House museum (seasonally) and the Jefferson County Historical Museum for a reduced rate. Visiting all three provides visitors with a wealth of information about Port Townsend, both historically and geographically. |
Fort Worden State Park Fort Worden is an early 20th century U. S. Army (Coast Artillery Corps) fort. The Fort, as headquarters for the Puget Sound Harbor Defenses, held a strategically important position in the triangle of defensive forts constructed to protect the entrance to Puget Sound and to safeguard the naval shipyard at Bremerton. Twelve-gun batteries stand as mute testimony to the Fort's original purpose. When Fort Worden was commissioned in 1902, there were no permanent buildings to house the troops. The men were billeted in tents atop Artillery Hill until the first 23 buildings were constructed around the parade ground in 1904. Ultimately, 228 main buildings and subsidiary structures were constructedincluding barracks, officers' quarters, administration buildings, kitchen and mess halls, a bakery, guard house, hospital, power house, signal station and wharf. Most military buildings of this era are long gone, but Fort Worden's have been preserved. These surviving quarters are excellent examples of the attractive order, style and grace of the new century. The designs were created by the U. S. Army Quartermaster Department in order to make life more bearable for its soldiers in the often-isolated posts.
Fort Worden State Park is on the state and national Register of Historic Places and has been declared a National Historic Landmark.
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Jefferson County Historical
Society
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for its contents. This is a safe-cache copy of the original web site.