Port Townsend Historical Sites

Name: Harry Barthrop House (now Quimper Inn B & B)
Year Built: 1880
Location: 1306 Franklin Street
Area: Uptown Port Townsend

Built by Henry Morgan in 1888 as a simple two-story square Georgian-style house with a double-hipped roof, this stately home was remodeled by Harry Barthrop and his wife, Gertrude. The couple met in Coupeville, on Whidbey Island, and were married on June 11, 1896. They bought this house in 1904 and immediately began remodeling it.

The Barthrops changed the entire look of the exterior. They created a third floor through the addition of gables and dormers, enlarged the front porch, and added a second-story porch. They enlarged the windows and added the bays on both sides of the house. They fashioned the remodeling after the style of Richardson and Sullivan, forefathers of the Chicago School of Modern Architecture. The second story shingled arches and the roof brackets are prominent features of this turn of the century movement.

The Barthrops made a lot of interior changes as well, including the addition of closets and woodwork detail, which survive to this day. Harry died in 1908, but Gertrude lived in the home until 1946. During its lifetime this house was used as a private home, a boarding house, nurses' living quarters, a warehouse for furniture, and an inn.

Some much-needed restoration was done in the early 1970s. New foundation, plumbing, and electrical projects were completed. The color was returned to its original white. For several years it was operated as the Quimper Inn. Then it served as a private home again for a while. The current owners fell under the house's spell, and after living in it for a year and a half they decided to put up the "Quimper Inn" sign again.