PORT ANGELES – Tour guides and costumed volunteers will escort groups on a trip back in time on Saturday and Sunday.
The sixth annual Heritage Weekend will showcase the historic side of the city, with tours of both downtown and underground Port Angeles, as well as turn-of-the-century homes, the Elwha Dam and the Clallam County Courthouse clock tower.
The Port Angeles Underground, with subterranean walkways and old store fronts, was created when streets were raised above the tidal flats in 1914.
This turned the first floor of many waterfront buildings into basements.
The tours on Saturday and Sunday, which will be guided by actors and historians dressed in period clothing, will provide insights into life in Port Angeles in the early 1900s.
“This is something that is better than the usual tours, because normally they have just the tour guide telling them everything,” said Don Perry, owner of Port Angeles Heritage Tours and coordinator of the weekend.
“But this weekend, the people in the period costumes will tell about how it used to be.”
The event will be staffed and supported by the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce, Heritage Tours, Port Angeles Business Association and the Port Angeles Underground Preservation Association.
“There is quite a group that has been involved,” Perry said.
“And then, of course, First Federal has been the main sponsor for several years.”
The primary sponsor is Heritage Tours.
Other sponsors, in addition to First Federal Savings & Loan, are the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce and KONP-AM 1450 radio.
Part of the downtown walking tour will be the site of a once-thriving brothel.
Above what is now the Family Shoe Store, costumed ladies will depict “the soiled doves” that leaned from the balconies to lure customers.
