PORT ANGELES — As the Port Angeles Sesquicentennial year heads toward its crescendo in September, a downtown display of the city’s history can lead visitors through a visual guide to a sepia-toned era, or, for some, down Memory Lane.
Most of the exhibits at Studio Bob, 118½ E. Front St. in Port Angeles are on loan from the Clallam County Historical Society collection.
They feature photographs and news articles from Port Angeles through the years, including a biplane landing in downtown Port Angeles in 1919.
On Saturday, about 100 people attended a “Peek at the Past” event, in which guests enjoyed looking at historical photos, drinking locally brewed root beer floats and getting some genealogical advice.
“It was fun,” said April Bellerud, chairwoman of the Heritage Days Committee.
Bellerud said one visitor commented that she was impressed with how much was saved from the early history of the city.
“People don’t think their funny little town is very interesting,” she said.
She explained that there are a lot of little stories, such as how a biplane came to land on a downtown street, in the histories of many of the small cities that exist away from the larger population areas.
“They had to make their own entertainment, their own money sometimes. There are really interesting things when you dig down deep,” Bellerud said.
The exhibit will be open through August from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.
Eleanor Tschimperle, 93, of Sequim visited the exhibit with friend Bill Eagle, 91, also of Sequim.
Tschimperle was born near Freshwater Bay and grew up in the Port Angeles area.
Her father was the founder of Rustic Cedar Products in the 1920s and said that over the years, she has seen a gradual change in the businesses of Port Angeles.
“I see a progression from the woods to the water,” Tschimperle said.
Where timber once ruled, the bulk of industry has moved to building and repairing boats, and more recently, to high-tech composite manufacturing, she noted.
“That’s where the new jobs are.”
Looking at the photos, she pointed out homes that were roofed with shakes from her father’s company, places she remembered visiting and events she remembered seeing firsthand.
“Look, it landed to celebrate my being born,” she said, pointing at the date on the photo of the biplane in downtown Port Angeles.
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
