Boiler Room percolates back into action on Christmas Eve

Published 12:01 am Friday, December 30, 2005

PORT TOWNSEND — The Boiler Room is back in action and once again bustling with youthful activity, only in a new downtown location at 711 Water St.

The youth-oriented, nonprofit coffee house opened its doors on Christmas Eve and has already had Port Townsend youths rushing to get inside.

“We’ve been open less than a week and already have consistently more people than when we were Uptown,” said Boiler Room manager Becky Shipley.

The Boiler Room started 13 years ago in the basement of a downtown building — literally a boiler room — then moved Uptown on Lawrence Street eight years ago.

The Boiler Room’s Uptown lease was not renewed in May by its landlord to allow a neighboring business to expand, which some Boiler Room regulars recall as “heart-wrenching” and “wretched.”

“A lot of the kids felt like their whole world was being taken away,” said Shipley.

But that world began to be recreated on July 4 when the 11-member board of directors made a $475,000 deal to obtain a permanent site on Water Street where the one-story Day Star Cafe was located.

“This ensures a future for the Boiler Room, if we can pull it off — owning our own business,” said Shipley.