PORT OF FRIDAY HARBOR

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Whether it's a pleasure boat, float plane or ferry, the Port of Friday Harbor is ready. Celebrate the port's 50th birthday Sunday, Oct 1, 2000 from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Yacht Club.

Port grows a hundred-fold in fifty years

By Matt Pranger

posted 09/29/00

Fifty years ago a pleasure boater coming to Friday Harbor anchored off the town's waterfront.

"There was no place to tie up. It just wasn't inviting at all," said longtime Port of Friday Harbor Commissioner Charlie Nash. "It wasn't much fun having a boat."

Selected Property Acquisitions

1977 -- Williamson Building and Pier. $225,000.

1982 -- Friday Harbor Airport, from Island Sky Ferries. $705,000 (includes $395,000 donation from the late Paul Whittier's Confidence Foundation).

1982 -- Three waterfront parcels from Spring Street to San Juan Island Yacht Club. Sold by San Juan County. $210,000.

1984 -- Jackson Beach from the Jackson family. $225,000. (The Jackson family realized a donation on the property's $450,000 value).

1988 -- Upper Parking Lot from Orcas Power & Light Co. $75,000.

1994 -- Spring Street Landing Pier from San Juan Marina.

2000 -- Mark & Pak from Mary Sliger. $750,000.

"There was a float at the base of Spring Street," said Simpson, "Every winter it was torn out and they'd go to merchants to ask for repairs."

Commercial ships used the small pier to load and off-load passengers and goods. Nash recalled how merchants were thrilled with the boost in business when even a modest-sized excursion boat called on Friday Harbor. Longing for a more reliable and larger pier, business people pushed for the formation of a port district.

"Everybody in business wanted it,"said Nash, whose father owned Friday Harbor Drug. Nash recalled his mother commenting on the "rush" after an excursion boat tied up. The storekeeper considered the extra business "a gift," Nash said.

Some large property owners and the San Juan Island Grange objected to the proposed port district and its accompanying higher taxes. But on Oct. 1, 1950, voters approved the formation of the Port of Friday Harbor, which includes all of San Juan Island and a few small islands. A few days later, charter port commissioners Nourdine Jensen, John Jones and Bob Buck held the district's first meeting.

The port's first pier accommodated about six boats, Nash said. San Juan County's sheriff used to collect moorage, said Simpson last week, fresh from a chat with Jensen.

While the port started as a modest enterprise it went after a major project early on. It wanted to buy Brown Island, a k a Friday Island, and turn half of the isle into a park and the other into a housing development. The public did not back the project.

The port's pier, fingers and customers slowly grew in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1977 the port bought the old Williamson Pier and Building (now the San Juan Juan Island Yacht Club). Fuel sales at the pier helped support the port. In the mid-1970s it built 200 slips.

Longing to own instead of leasing land, the port purchased the waterfront property from Spring Street to the San Juan Island Yacht Club in 1982 for $210,000. In 1984 the port added the current breakwater and doubled its marina's slips. With the addition of the old San Juan Marina pier -- now the Spring Street Landing -- the port oversees more than 600 slips.

In addition to accommodating pleasure boaters, the port also encouraged small water-based businesses at the marina. The development of Spring Street Landing provided more convenient loading and off-loading for passenger ferries and a better location for sightseeing boats to sail from.

With more than 30 leases, the port is a major landlord. In considering businesses for leases, the port strives to accommodate "businesses that can keep one family alive for a year," said port Auditor Marilyn O'Connor.

"We're creating an economy that will last through changes," O'Connor adds. "Tourism takes care of itself."

The port's involvement in airborne transportation also grew over the years. It purchased the Friday Harbor Airport from Island Sky Ferries in 1982. The port gradually purchased properties around the airport over the years with the goal to eliminate residences.

While it eliminated homes where people might complain of noise, it also promoted leases for commercial and public ventures. The Skagit Valley San Juan Center opened in the mid-1990s on a hill overlooking the airport and now shares a building with the Washington State University Extension Office. San Juan Fire District No. 3 is building a station/office on port land at Mullis Street and Argyle Avenue. Several hangars have also been added for the more than 100 aircraft that fly out of the airport.

Annually there are approximately 19,000 emplanements from the airport and 5,000 from the marina's seaplane base, Simpson said.

The port completed its property acquisition plan for the airport earlier this summer when it purchased the old Mark & Pak building and lot. "We're through buying property at the airport," Simpson said. In accordance with Federal Aeronautical Administration rules, the building will be removed. Staff and commissioners have discussed using the site as a long-term parking lot.

Although the port is probably finished buying property, it will continue to invest in its properties.

"Our problems are," Simpson said, "we built the port little by little and now it's falling apart little by little. We know our '60s stuff is falling apart."

That includes the marina office building, which also houses restrooms and showers. "There is no handicap accessibility," Simpson said. "The building's pushing 35 years and it's heavily, heavily used. We're going to have to do some major remodeling."

Better pedestrian and vehicle access is also being addressed by the port, which, with the Town of Friday Harbor and other agencies, plans to reconfigure Front Street. The public boat ramp at Jackson Beach has been upgraded and trails are being constructed at the airport.

"Generally, what we're trying to do is work on quality issues more than capacity," Simpson said.

Nash commended the port staff for their contributions during the district's gradual growth. "They've done a real good job. Steve's done a really good job of administering the thing. Most of the people who work there seem pretty happy."

Nash, who operated fishing boats and even a mail boat serving the San Juan Islands during the port's five decades, believes the district is meeting its original intent. "I know it's benefited the town very much. The businesses have grown.... It's met the demands."

Nourdine Jensen cuts the cake at the Port of Friday Harbor's 50th birthday party Oct. 1, 2000..