Building History

The Independent Order of Good Templars (IOGT), founded in 1851 in Utica, NY, was a temperance organization open to men and women. This chapter in Port Townsend erected this two-story, wood-frame, chapter meeting hall in 1889. The Jefferson County Historical Society recapitulated the history of this building: ""Built in 1889 by the Independent Order of Good Templars (IOGT), the ground floor was rented to the Julius Bergman Grocery and C.C. Holburg Furniture. The Palace Drug Store was on the side street. Clark Aldrich, Jr., bought the building in 1926 to move his family store to the ground level, and its was Aldrich's Grocery until it burned down in 2003. A new store, with condominiums above, opened on the site in 2005." (See the Jefferson County Historical Society, Port Townsend, [Charleston, SC: Arcadia Press, 2008], p. 56.)

The chapter commissioned the local firm of Whiteway and Schroeder to design the clubhouse/commercial building. In 1889-1890, the firm was very busy in Port Townsend, designing at least 17 other buildings in town. (This list of 17 buildings was researched first by Robert G. Hill, Architect, creator of the Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada, 1800-1950, see the entry for William Tuff Whiteway)

PCAD id: 20699