PORT TOWNSEND — Nine kitchens will be on the 21st annual AAUW/UWF Kitchen Tour on Saturday.
The tour, Port Townsend Kitchens and Beyond, which is sponsored by the American Association of University Women and the University Women’s Foundation, will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., beginning from the hospitality center at the First Presbyterian Church, 1111 Franklin St., Port Townsend.
Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 the day of the tour. They can be purchased online at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/ as well as at local retail outlets such as the Kitchen & Bath Studio, Quimper Mercantile, What’s Cookin’, The Chimacum Corner Farmstand and other local merchants.
Ticket holders will go to the hospitality center to pick up a tour passport, which will offer addresses and descriptions of the nine homes on the tour. Design seminars, raffle baskets and refreshments will be offered at the center.
Empowering young women is the goal for the funds raised during the tour, said Lynne Stryker, publicity chairwoman.
Last year alone, local Jefferson County young women were awarded more than $50,000 in scholarship money to attend college through the American Association of University Women/UWF.
This year’s plan is to award $70,000 in honor of the organization’s 70th year anniversary, Stryker said.
New this year is the close walking proximity of five of the homes on the tour — all in Port Townsend’s Uptown.
They include restored Victorians with both small and large kitchens, as well as a newly built home made to look like a historic carriage house.
Even a tiny house is featured in the Secret Garden area of Uptown, Stryker said.
A fabulous beachfront modern home, as well as a new-build chef’s kitchen, round out the nine homes featured on the tour.
One of the homes featured is the historic Capt. Rudolpho DeLion home at 712 Clay St., a classic example of 1883 Italianate architecture, Stryker said.
This home has been restored by second-generation owners, Marilyn and Fred Miller. A turn of the century document shows another of the home’s owners was also named Fred Miller.
The original builder of the home, DeLion, was the Chilean and Peruvian ambassador, and spoke five languages fluently, including Greek and Latin, Stryker said.
He was a man of many “firsts” in Port Townsend. He built the first home with central heating, and this home is the only true consulate to have ever existed in the town, she said.
DeLion was an entrepreneur and owned sailing ships and lumber transport businesses, but he also installed the first wind-powered water pump in his backyard.
“This home is a lovely example of modifying for aging in place while still retaining the historic charm of an old Victorian,” Styker said.
“During this home’s renovation, extra space was found by removing the back staircase to the home in order to create a master bath with accessible roll-in shower attached to a sitting room, which is now the master bedroom. A large island in quarter sawn oak is combined with light and airy painted cabinets which go to the ceiling,” Styker said.
“An apron-front farmhouse sink and original stained glass window provide character, along with all the modern conveniences of pullouts, a warming drawer, pop-up mixer stand and large bookcase for the homeowner’s cookbook collection.”
