PORT TOWNSEND — In a city recently scarred by fire, residents gathered Thursday to celebrate the restoration of an historical fire bell tower standing in the shadow of another landmark just lost, Aldrich’s grocery.
“The tragic loss of Aldrich’s really reminds us of how our historic buildings give us a place of sense and community,” said Barbara Marseille, president of the Jefferson County Historical Society,
As a crane lifted blackened timbers from the burned shell of Aldrich’s grocery at one end of Tyler Street, Marseille, Deputy Mayor Freida Fenn and Patrick Young of the Port Townsend Fire Department, spoke to 50 people gathered at the other end of the street about what the bell tower means to the city.
“The tower used to bring people together in a tragedy,” Young said.
“When the bell sounded, the community came, just as they are doing today for Aldrich’s.”
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The rest of the story appears in Friday’s Peninsula Daily News.