Heritage of other Kitsap Communities
Bainbridge Island | Bremerton | Kingston | Port Orchard | Poulsbo | Silverdale

     The town of Kingston was platted April 24, 1890, by C.C. Calkins, Nellie Calkins, and S.B. Brierly, as a 175-acre village extending in two wings on either side of Central Avenue (the present State Route 104). The same spirit of optimism that stimulated the three founders also prompted construction of the first hotel, and a campaign to attract tourists to the sparsely settled shores of Apple Tree Cove, where logging and small farms had been the principal source of income since the 1850's. Besides working in several small sawmills, residents of the area had logged off their own homesteads. Many were employed over several decades at the Pope & Talbot mill in Port Gamble.

     Until World War ll, Kingston's fields and orchards supplied strawberries, lettuce and other produce for Seattle markets. Although there was a wharf extending to deep water as early as 1890, it was the little ships of the "mosquito fleet" that provided freight and passenger transport for the area. Passenger ferries began running from Seattle in the 1920's, and the Kingston-Edmonds car ferry began as a private venture in 1923. Thereafter much of Kingston's life has been centered around that ferry link, which made Kingston a gateway for thousands of annual visitors to the Olympic Peninsula. Population remained small, however, until World War ll, although scores of summer homes and vacation cabins were occupied by Seattle residents during the summer months. Completion of Interstate 5 in the eastern counties of Puget Sound in the 1950's created a new class of commuting Kingstonites. Establishment of the Trident Submarine Base at Bangor swelled growth further in the 1970's. The 1980's have been marked by mushrooming construction of new homes and businesses, and in organization of an array of new community activities.