Ceremonies in store for Port Angeles anniversary

Published 12:01 am Sunday, June 10, 2012

PORT ANGELES — A blast of muskets will mark the celebration of a Port Angeles anniversary later this month, while an open house Saturday will prepare the way for the sesquicentennial ceremony.

It was 150 years ago, on June 19, 1862, that President Abraham Lincoln ordered a reservation for military uses and a lighthouse on Ediz Hook, establishing Port Angeles as a town site.

A post office that had been established in 1860 gained its name with Lincoln’s order, said Mayor ­Cherie Kidd.

“It was in 1862 that we became Port Angeles,” said Kidd, who is organizing sesquicentennial celebrations this coming Saturday and the following Tuesday.

The area was dubbed Puerto de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles — Port of Our Lady of the Angels — by Spanish explorer Francisco de Eliza in 1791.

The name was shortened to Port Angeles with Lincoln’s order, Kidd said.

Saturday open house

On Saturday, a free open house and ice-cream social are planned at the Port Angeles Civic Historic District, an area recognized by the National Register of Historic Places that encompasses the art deco building at 215 S. Lincoln St. — which served as the city’s first permanent fire station, jail and City Council chambers — and its neighbors, the ­Clallam County Courthouse, with its historic steps leading up from Lincoln Street, and the Museum at the Carnegie at 207 S. Lincoln St., as well as Veterans Park.

Ceremonies will begin at noon on the steps of the courthouse and continue until 4 p.m.

“We want people to come and celebrate our history,” Kidd said.

Tours of the courthouse and the Carnegie are planned.

From 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., an ice-cream social is scheduled at 215 S. Lincoln St.

Ed Bedford, owner of Northwest Soda Works of Port Angeles, will donate a special anniversary edition of his gourmet root beer.

He and Kidd will serve root beer floats, she said.

She also plans to have Joyce Stroeher, the newly elected regent of Port Angeles’ Michael Trebert Chapter of the Daughters of American Revolution, talk about how Port Angeles got its name, Kidd said.

June 19 celebration

The following Tuesday, on June 19, the Museum at the Carnegie will serve as a post office, where a postal employee will hand-cancel pre-printed envelopes with either a special sesquicentennial stamp or a graphic noting Lincoln’s action, Kidd said.

Port Angeles Postmaster Lisa Jones will open the office at the Carnegie at noon.

“We become an official post office for two hours,” Kidd said.

“We received permission from the U.S. Postal Service to have our historic library become an official post office” from noon to 2 p.m., Kidd added.

The hand-stamped envelopes will cost $1.

Everything else will be free.

Four members of the Peninsula Long Rifles Association, dressed as frontiersmen, will provide a musket salute as a U.S. flag with 50 stars is lowered and one with 35 stars is raised, Kidd said.

Kidd will read a proclamation, and a re-enactor, Raymond Egan of Tacoma, will give an invocation as Father Luigi Rossi.

Rossi was the first clergyman on the North Olympic Peninsula, Kidd said.

After the invocation, Egan will mingle with visitors and tell stories, Kidd said.

Kidd urged schools to allow field trips to the event, saying that each schoolchild who attends will receive a free stamped envelope.

“We’re encouraging school field trips to learn more about the history of Port Angeles,” Kidd said.

Other special guests are planned, including Eileen Schmitz of JACE The Real Estate Co., who will give away 150 tree seedlings in memory of her husband, Jace Schmitz, the black-hatted founder of the company who died in January.

Sesquicentennial T-shirts will be offered for sale, Kidd said.

Sesquicentennial quilt

Also on sale will be raffle tickets for the Port Angeles Sesquicentennial Quilt, made by members of the Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club, which is on view at Elliott’s Antique Emporium at 135 E. First St.

The drawing will be held at the Port Angeles Senior Center from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 10.

All proceeds will go toward signs for the newly designated historic district and restoration of the old fire station.

Tickets also are on sale at the senior center, Captain T’s Shirt Shop, Necessities and Temptations gift shop, Odyssey Bookshop, Pen Print, Port Angeles-Victoria Tourist Bureau and Port Book and News.

Celebrations of the sesquicentennial are planned all year, Kidd said.

“We started off the year with the sesquicentennial baby,” she said.

Melania Christine Burke was the first Port Angeles baby born in 2012 and will be feted all year.

She and her parents, Rebecca and James Burke, will be invited to take part in many of the events that will take place in 2012, including the Fourth of July parade, Kidd said.

During the 2012 Heritage Days Festival on Sept. 15-16, residents will be encouraged to dress up for the sesquicentennial.