Port Orchard

When visiting Port Orchard, it is hard to miss the imposing view of the Olympic Mountains, the beautiful waterfront, and the pride of our military heritage just across the water at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. In this quaint community you will be welcomed by warm and friendly, small town charm and provided with most of the big town amenities.

Port Orchard is located on Sinclair Inlet in the southern portion of Kitsap County west of Seattle. The city has numerous marinas providing visitors and boaters convenient accommodations, shopping, museums, theater and live performance entertainment, galleries, and dining. With ferry access from Seattle to Bremerton and Bremerton to Port Orchard, an excursion to Port Orchard is an easy day trip or a charming weekend getaway.

Known as the city of firsts, the city’s early pioneers had a great vision for their new town. In 1886 Port Orchard, originally named Sidney was platted, and in 1890 it was incorporated as the first city in Kitsap County. Early settlers worked diligently to ensure and establish Port Orchard as the County seat. They established the first newspaper, the first post office, and had some of the first industries in the county including shingle and logging mills, pottery and terra cotta businesses. Interestingly, the pottery and terra cotta businesses produced the bricks that helped pave Seattle. Many of these original bricks are still present in Seattle today and can be found paving popular tourist locations like Pioneer Square and Pike’s Place Market. Other visions at the top of their list, was to lobby the Federal Government to bring the new West Coast Shipyard to Orchard Bay. They succeeded in achieving this goal and established what was called the Port Orchard Shipyard in what is now our neighboring city, Bremerton.

Decades later, early pioneers also moved to ensure that the first veteran’s home in the state, the Retsil Veterans Home, landed here. Once established, Retsil brought in 127 families, and soon thereafter other businesses, a church, and a school became permanent parts of Port Orchard’s landscape. From early settlers to present day, the entire South Kitsap community has a spirit of pride and a can-do attitude which is evident in our new boardwalk, the new public market, and in the town’s businesses.