Walking Tour of Oysterville

Map of Oysterville

Click on the thumbnail of the hand drawn map at the left to load a larger image of the Map of Oysterville.

1. The Oysterville Church - 1892

Built at a cost of $1500, the church was a gift to the Baptist denomination by R. H. Espy. No regular services have been held here since the mid-1930s. In 1980 the church was rededicated as an ecumenical house of worship. Music Vesper services conducted by ministers from various churches on the peninsula are held Sundays from mid-June through Labor Day Weekend. All are welcome to "come as you are."

2. Johnson Homesite 1870 - 1896

The Johnsons were one of many Native American families who lived in Oysterville in its early days.

3. W. D. Taylor House 1870

This house was constructed by early Loomis Stage Line driver, W. D. Taylor, who later built the Taylor Hotel in Ocean Park. Behind the house are the remains of later owner Tommy Nelson's commercial oyster smoking business which operated from the 1930s to the mid-1950s.

5. Michael Parker House - 1992

6. Chris Freshley Cabin - 1980

7. Larry Freshley Cabin - 1995

8. Ned Osborne House - 1873

Osborne arrived in Oysterville in 1866 aboard the schooner Sailor Boy along with his good friend and neighbor, Charles Nelson. He began building this house for his bride-to-be, continuing to work on it even though she jilted him before the wedding date. When she married another, however, Osborne stopped building and never completed the upstairs bedrooms. He lived a bachelor all his life in this house.

9. Charles Nelson House - 1873

Like his next door neighbor, Nelson was born in Kalmar, Sweden. The two sailed together as young men, eventually settling in Oysterville. Mrs. Nelson's lovely garden featured old-fashioned flowers and paths made of sparkling white, crushed native oyster shell. Many Nelson descendents live in the area.

10. Nordquist House - 1994

11. The Meadow

In the meadow across from the Red Cottage a stone bench has been placed so that visitors might sit and view the bay. On it, inscribed in Willard Espy's hand, is a line from his book, The Road to Grandpa's House.

12. Holway House - 1949

13. Tom Crellin House - 1869

Like many of the old houses in the village, the Tom Crellin house was built of redwood lumber brought north as ballast on oyster schooners out of San Francisco. In 1892, after the Crellin family had moved to California, R. H. Espy purchased the house to serve as a parsonage for the new Baptist church. Since 1902 it has been occupied by Espy descendents.

14. Wachsmuth House & Cottages - 1939

15. Courthouse Sign

This wooden plaque was placed on July 4, 1976 during Oysterville's bicentennial celebration when the village was granted its National Historic District status. It marks the site of the old Pacific County Courthouse, the first tax-financed building constructed in the county.

16. Oysterville Schoolhouse - 1907

This is the third and last school in Oysterville and was used by Pacific County School District #1 until consolidation in 1957. The first school was a prefabricated building of "red wood" made in California and shipped aboard one of the oyster schooners in 1863. The booming community soon outgrew the "little red schoolhouse" and in 1874 a two-story building was built on this site, serving the community until it burned down in 1905.

17. Hampson House - 1987

18. Wilson-Codega House - 1993

19. John Crellin House - 1867

The house was built by Tom Crellin's older brother using plans he brought from his native Isle of Man. From the bay it is obvious that both Crellin houses (the white and green) were built using the same plans, though younger brother Tom added bay windows and a bit more gingerbread to his. From 1920 until WWII this was the site of the Heckes Inn, listed in the Duncan Hines Travel Guides as an outstanding eating place. The Monterey Cypress trees in front were brought from California in the 1890s as ballast on an oyster schooner.

20. Smith Cabin - c.1920

21. Kepner House - 2004

22. Jacobs House - 1991

23. Kemmer House - c. 1920

24. R. H. Espy House - 1871

Robert Hamilton Espy, co-founder of Oysterville, built this house in 1871, shortly after he married. From 1854 until that time he had lived in a log cabin about 100 feet south and across the road. The "Red House" has remained in the Espy family for six generations.

25. Stoner House - 1905

Dewitt Stoner, a bachelor living with his mother, first built a small house just east of the present house on the same lot and built this larger house when he married. Until recently it was the site of the last remaining windmill in Oysterville - a structure that was part of almost every property before electricity came to the village in the late 1930s.

26. Fire Station - circa 1978

27. Janke House - 1910

28. Captain Stream House - 1878

A.T. Stream came to this country in 1860 from his native Norway, arriving in the Shoalwater Bay area in 1867. He was in Oysterville at the time of the 1870 census, but lived at various times at Tokeland, South Bend, and finally at Klipsan, which was named by him after the Indian word for sunset. He distinguished himself as a member of the United States Lifesaving Service and was well-known for his racing expertise in the annual regattas sponsored by Oysterville's Shoalwater Bay Yacht Club.

29. The Bunk House - 1959

30. The Cannery - 1940

The Northern Oyster Company, begun in the 1930s by Ted Holway, Glenn Heckes, and Roy Kemmer, operated as a cannery until 1967. Now it is the home of Oysterville Sea Farms, selling fresh oysters and other local products. Though no longer a cannery, it is the only structure remaining in Oysterville that gives testimony to the settlement's original reason for being.

31. Friedlander/Thurston House - 1994

32. Eddie Freshley House - 1982

33. de Marcken/Freeman House - 2004

34. Hausler Cabin - 1989

35. Merton Andrews House - c. 1935

36. The Andrews Garage - c. 1900

37. Carl Andrews House - c. 1940

38. The Oysterville Store & Post Office - 1919

The Oysterville Post Office has operated in Oysterville since 1858 and is the oldest continuously run Post Office under the same name in Washington. It has been in its present location since 1919 when Bert and Minnie Andrews began the Oysterville Store.

39. Bert Andrews House - 1907

40. Oysterville Cemetery - 1858

Begun in 1858 on land donated by F.C. Davis, the old section of the cemetery contains the graves of many pioneer families. Near the entrance is the grave of Chief Nahcati who befriended R. H. Espy and showed him the oyster beds and for whom Nahcotta, a village three miles south of here, is named. Just to the south, near the marker which reads "And the sea gave up its dead..." are the graves of unknown sailors who washed ashore nearby in the early days of Oysterville. Thanks to Sydney Stevens for this text and to Patricia Fagerland for her illustration.