Historic Downtowns (Tacoma, Kennewick, Ellensburg: home, living, shops)

[Leap of Belief]

Taking a poll of opinions of the Best HISTORIC Downtown City Centers in Washington state?

Which downtowns do you think have personality and charm? Rate them if they are booming, making a come back or cool but run down? Input on best features would be great too :-)

There are a lot of historic downtown city centers that are working toward revitalization. We are making summer travel plans and want to take the family to visit the historic side of WA.

Thanks!

[mthomson]

Gig Harbor's new History Museum will be done by the summer. Great, walkable downtown. Tacoma's new downtown is pretty amazing. History Museum, Glass Museum, and waterfront walkway is pretty nice as well. Then shoot up to Poulsbo. Gorgeous, fun little shops. Easy to hit those 3 and all very fun.

[Ira500]

Steilacoom: Extremely cool but slightly rundown...
Port Townsend: Pretty, artsy, but touristy..
Ellensburg: Very cool old buildings, somewhat booming.

[Whyte Byrd]

I haven't seen many but I sure like Fairhaven.

[Sandy Nelson]

Centralia - Still very authentic and being revitalized.

[Whidbey]

Come to Coupeville! We are part of Ebey's Landing National Historic Reserve. There are over 50 Historic Register buildings in Coupeville alone, not to mention the surrounding area has many more. Here's a link for some info. regarding the Historic Waterfront Walking Tour.

We also have a great museum, Island County Historical Museum, which is open daily. Throughout the year, there are numerous festivals which include wooden tall ships visiting. Not quite summer, but in May at the Water Festival, local native tribes compete in wooden boat races across scenic Penn Cove, the glistening snow off the distant mountain ranges of both the Cascades on the mainland and the Olympics on the Olympic Peninsula can be seen from our lovely town. So, not only can you learn about the early sea captains from Coupeville, you can also learn about our first settlers, listening to stories & song from tribal elders! There's a Wharf Fest in June which includes historic boats, the famous Arts & Crafts Festival in August and many, many more! Fort Casey & Fort Ebey have remnants of gun batteries & information provided, in addition to great views, hikes & a lighthouse at Fort Casey.

Last summer, the National Park Service offered 3 different daily guided walking tours. You can always pick up a walking tour from the Museum or Chamber too.

Take a ferry ride to Whidbey or drive over amazing Deception Pass bridge--you won't regret it.

[hotshawt]

I'm partial to Poulsbo with it's Norweigian charm. Quaint little downtown area.

[LMB]

From our experience as visitors to the western WA area for many years before moving here in July 2007, here's a list of towns my husband & I enjoyed exploring--in no particular order. Many have already been mentioned, and the helpful posters here will add even more from other areas of WA. There are so many interesting, historic small towns in this state. We found delights in each one and envy your task! After five years of being tourists, we fell in love with Poulsbo and bought a home here, within walking distance of the quaint little downtown. Now we get to visit all these other cool little towns whenever we want and then come home to our favorite one, Poulsbo.

Here's a few other small towns in our corner of the world we enjoy visiting: Port Townsend, Coupeville, Langley, Gig Harbor, Fairhaven, and LaConner; for a little larger town, we like poking around in the oldtown area of Anacortes (there's a great old marine hardware store near the waterfront there). Have fun exploring!

Lynn

[j_k_k]

Heh, the one you don't want is Kennewick. Downtown Kennewick is to urban quaintness and vibrancy what Terri Schiano was to medicine. They try so, so hard, and the most booming business vectors remain trashy bars and tattoo parlors. Living about two miles from it, I chuckle in amusement every time I crawl through at the snail's pace enforced by all the 4-way stops (there is not enough traffic on the main street to require stoplights; absorb the meaning of that for a second).

[bobbilly79]

Ellensburg does have a nice downtown, with quite a few events throughout the year (Winter Brewfest, Jazz In The Valley, Dauchunds on Parade). And if you are into antiques they certainly have their share of antique shops.