Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Port Orchard

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
C+History
History · Port Orchard

Port Orchard dates to 1854, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

More historic than 38% of U.S. towns · #96 of 285 in Washington. What drives it

Most of Port Orchard was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1999. Its Register listing is the Masonic Hall- Port Orchard. Below: 17 old photos and papers, maps from 1914 on, and the census since 1890.

1854founded
1on the National Register
6%homes built before 1940
17old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Port Orchard’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Port Orchard began

When was Port Orchard founded?

1854

Port Orchard dates its founding to 1854 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1890.

First census: 226 in 18902020 census: 15,587172 years

How historic is Port Orchard?

C+

More historic than 38% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1861.The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Port Orchard’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Port Orchard is more historic than 38% of U.S. towns, #96 of 285 in Washington. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Port Orchard’s overall grade.
Founding era1854, from Wikidata: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19406.3% of homes (±2.4) · typical WA town 4.3% · U.S. 8.4%C+National Register1 listing, 0.6 per 10,000 residents · typical WA town 0.1 · U.S. 2.4B−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 38%
NewerOlder
Washington towns of 2,500+ (285)Ahead of 67%

Few Washington towns list much on the Register (a typical Washington town has 0.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Port Orchard’s 0.6 sits near the middle of its state (58% of Washington towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to C+. The pre-1940 share (±2.4 points) is firm at this size. Two sources give 1854.

Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Port Orchard’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Port Orchard, and 4 old place names are still on the map.A town in old photos17 old photos, postcards and papers, 1890–1980.
★ What stands out · Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and burying grounds

Port Orchard’s post office has been open since 1861. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Port Orchard
1861–today
Sidney
1886–1893
Mitchell
1888–1891
18601940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
AnnapolisFernwoodHeritage Mobile Home ParkOrchard Bluff Mobile Home Park
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Port Orchard
Knights of PythiasSunset Lane

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

By decade

Port Orchard, decade by decade

4 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1890s5 items
Black Jack Brook with dead and fallen trees, Sidney, Washington, ca. 1890c. 1890Black Jack Brook with dead and fallen trees, Sidney, …Olympic Mountains with a steamboat in the foreground, Sidney, Washington, ca. 1890c. 1890Olympic Mountains with a steamboat in the foreground,…Waterfall in Trout Brook, Port Orchard, ca. 1890c. 1890Waterfall in Trout Brook, Port Orchard, ca. 1890Brooks Randolph standing on cedar tree stump, Sidney (now Port Orchard), ca. 1896c. 1896Brooks Randolph standing on cedar tree stump, Sidney …Man seated on huge Western Redcedar stump, ca. 1890c. 1896Man seated on huge Western Redcedar stump, ca. 1890
1900s6 items
Battleship IOWA in drydock, Port Orchard, April 28, 19001900Battleship IOWA in drydock, Port Orchard, April 28, 1…Dry dock at Port Orchard Navy Yard, Port Orchard, Washington, ca. 1901c. 1901Dry dock at Port Orchard Navy Yard, Port Orchard, Was…U.S.S. IOWA in dry dock, Port Orchard, Washington, approximately 1901c. 1901U.S.S. IOWA in dry dock, Port Orchard, Washington, ap…Seattle Mail and Herald, v. 9, no. 22, Apr. 21, 19061906Seattle Mail and Herald, v. 9, no. 22, Apr. 21, 1906Stage departing Port Orchard for Clifton, Washington, ca. 1907c. 1907Stage departing Port Orchard for Clifton, Washington,…Ferry dock at Port Orchard, Washington, ca. 1908c. 1908Ferry dock at Port Orchard, Washington, ca. 1908
1910s5 items
Gamble stage coach leaving Port Orchard for Clifton, n.d1910Gamble stage coach leaving Port Orchard for Clifton, …Bay St., Port Orchard, Washington, ca. 1911c. 1911Bay St., Port Orchard, Washington, ca. 19112 pre-prohibition Washington beers19162 pre-prohibition Washington beersOldstyle Lager Beer 011916Oldstyle Lager Beer 01Navy Yard addition in Port Orchard, 19171917Navy Yard addition in Port Orchard, 1917
1920s–1970snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
1980s1 item
Painted barn near Port Orchard, Washington1980Painted barn near Port Orchard, Washington
1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today6 recent
US Navy 070116-N-1683M-001 Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C, Stennis (CVN 74) steams out of Naval Base Kitsap B…2006US Navy 070116-N-1683M-001 Nimitz-class aircraft carr…US Navy 061028-N-1683M-003 Line handlers assemble topside as the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Honolulu (…2006US Navy 061028-N-1683M-003 Line handlers assemble top…PugetSoundNavalShipyardWideViewc. 2006PugetSoundNavalShipyardWideViewPort Orchard, WA — City Hall (2006-01-08)2006Port Orchard, WA — City Hall (2006-01-08)OlympicMountainsWashington2006OlympicMountainsWashingtonSinclair Inlet and Olympic Mtns2005Sinclair Inlet and Olympic Mtns
The story

How Port Orchard came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Port Orchard.

Read it all →

Port Orchard Bay was Named By Captain Vancouver in 1792. The first European-Americans to settle in what is now Port Orchard were William Renton and Daniel Howard, who set up a sawmill there in 1854. The town that was to become Port Orchard was originally platted in 1886 by Frederick Stevens, who named the new location after his father, Sidney. The town of Sidney was incorporated September 15, 1890, and was the first in Kitsap County to be both platted and incorporated. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Navy sought a suitable location for another installation on the West Coast, and found it with the assistance of Sidney's residents in Orchard Bay (this installation would later become the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton).

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Port Orchard, 1854 to 1994

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1854
    FoundingPort Orchard is established
  3. 1861Post officeThe Port Orchard post office opens
  4. 1886Post officeThe Sidney post office opens
  5. 1888Post officeThe Mitchell post office opens
  6. 1890In the archiveBlack Jack Brook with dead and fallen trees, Sidney, Washington, ca. 1890
  7. 1891Post officeThe Mitchell post office closes
  8. 1893Post officeThe Sidney post office closes
  9. 20th century
  10. 1900In the archiveBattleship IOWA in drydock, Port Orchard, April 28, 1900
  11. 1908BuiltMasonic Hall- Port Orchard is built
  12. 1910In the archiveGamble stage coach leaving Port Orchard for Clifton, n.d
  13. 1937On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  14. 1980In the archivePainted barn near Port Orchard, Washington
  15. 1994Born hereMadelaine Petsch is born here
On the map

Port Orchard on the map, 1937 to 1981

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Port Orchard. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Port Orchard on the 1937 USGS mapPort Orchard on the 1953 USGS mapPort Orchard on the 1968 USGS mapPort Orchard on the 1973 USGS mapPort Orchard on the 1981 USGS map1937Port Orchard sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Port Orchard.

Every building

Port Orchard, building by building, 1914

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.

Port Orchard fire insurance map, 1914, sheet 11914Sheet 1 of 3
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Black Jack Brook with dead and fallen trees, Sidney, Washington, ca. 1890
Retake this viewBlack Jack Brook with dead and fallen trees, Sidney, Washington, ca. 1890, c. 1890

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Port Orchard’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Port Orchard

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
2010
Masonic Hall- Port Orchard
Masonic Hall- Port Orchard, built 1908
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Craftsman1
Masonic Hall- Port OrchardCraftsman · Built 1908

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Port Orchard, census by census

02,0004,0006,0008,00010,00012,00014,00016,000190019201940196019802000202015,587

Grew from 226 people in 1890 to 15,587 in 2020, more than tenfold.

14 censuses, 1890–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Port Orchard’s Wikipedia page.

Help out

Finish Port Orchard’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
3 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewBlack Jack Brook with dead and fallen t…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

East Port OrchardIts storyC−ParkwoodIts storyDGorstIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBethelIts storyDNavy Yard CityIts storyC−Bremerton10 historic placesB+

Questions about Port Orchard’s history

What year was Port Orchard founded?

In 1854, according to Wikidata. Port Orchard’s post office opened in 1861, and the census of 1890 counted 226 people here.

How does Port Orchard rank for history?

Port Orchard is more historic than 38% of U.S. towns, #96 of 285 in Washington. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

What is on the National Register in Port Orchard?

One place: the Masonic Hall- Port Orchard (listed 2010).

How old are the homes in Port Orchard?

6% of Port Orchard’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.4 points), against a typical 4.3% for a Washington town; the median home was built in 1999.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

From Wikimedia Commons (22), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.