PORT TOWNSEND — What’s in a name? To seven Korean War veterans who remembered the place from long ago and Port of Port Townsend leaders, it’s a return to historical truth.
The veterans on Thursday joined Port officials in celebrating a return to the historically accurate name of Hudson Point for a longtime military base that now serves as Port buildings.
The Army veterans, now in their late 70s, served at the Hudson Point military base with the 369th EBM Company A during the early 1950s.
At some point after 1956, the name of the place changed to Point Hudson.
Wednesday, it became again Hudson Point — which is closer to the original name, Hudson’s Point, given to the site by a group of explorers in 1841.
Ceremony and memories
Port officials and veterans gathered under a mural by the veterans’ deceased Army buddy, Howard Hirsch, which depicted an Army landing craft, one of the many based at Hudson Point during the Korean War.
The mural was uncovered during the Port’s renovation of the former military Hospital Building at Hudson Point, which this year became the Port’s new administrative offices.
“I came to Fort Worden and then opened this camp up with some reservists, nine of us altogether,” recalled R.P. “Dick” Berg, who organized the fifth reunion of the 369th, this time in Port Townsend.
Berg, now 78, said he helped prepare the camp for up to 175 troops.
He came to Hudson Point as a private in 1950, and left it in 1952 as a sergeant.
Port of Port Townsend commissioners Bob Sokol and Herb Beck listened as Port Executive Director Larry Crockett read the resolution that the Port commissioners had adopted earlier Wednesday which officially returned to the name of Hudson Point.
The Port commissioners unanimously approved the change that Sokol had proposed in May.
Berg said he bunked in a room now used for Crockett’s office.
The veteran remembers between 20 and 25 landing crafts, a PT boat and a tugboat were based at Hudson Point.
“We had a ball here,” he said, smiling.
Crockett read the resolution, which states in part that the Port commissioners resolve to rename the property Hudson Point “and all future signage and legal documents will refer to it as such.”
First named in 1841
A northwest point at the entrance to Port Townsend Bay, it was named by Cmdr. Charles Wilkes in 1841 as Hudson’s Point, for Lt. William F. Hudson of The United States Exploring Expedition, commonly known as the Wilkes Expedition,
As in many similar names, the possessive form was dropped for simplification.
Facilities at Hudson Point were originally built by the military in 1934 as a quarantine station with a dredged lagoon and dock.
Between 1939 and 1945, the Coast Guard used the site as a recruitment training center.
During World War II, it was a Navy onshore patrol base.
During the Korean War, it served as an Army training facility.
The Port of Port Townsend acquired it in 1953, and references to the place up to 1956 refer to it as Hudson Point, according to archivist Marge Samuelson at the Jefferson County Historical Society’s Research Center.
At some point after that, the name changed to Point Hudson.
