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Commanding Officer's Quarters

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The Commanding Officer's Quarters Historic House Museum

Opens April 14th – and will be open
Thursday-Sunday from 11-4pm.
Admission is by donation.

Location: Fort Worden State Park & Conference Center, 200 Battery Way, Port Townsend, along "Officer's Row."

Seeking Visitor Services Volunteers! Visit our Volunteer page to learn more.



What can I see at the Commanding Officer's Quarters?

The house is one of Fort Worden's finest buildings. It was completed in April 1904, and many different families resided there. Located at the head of Officers’ Row, the Commanding Officer’s Quarters overlooks Admiralty Inlet, with Mt. Baker and the Cascades in the background. Late Victorian and Edwardian furnishings provide a unique glimpse into the life of a senior U. S. Army officer and his family in the first decade of the 20th century. 

Explore this virtual tour and also check out a 3-minute favorite things tour, featuring gravity toilets, light switches and other surprises.

Special features of the Commanding Officer’s Quarters include the cross-gabled slate roof with fancy chimneys and decorated boxed cornices; fireplaces in the parlor, dining room and study; and built-in cabinets in the dining room with glass doors. The nearly 6,000 square foot quarters also has 10-foot-high pressed tin ceilings, pocket doors, Palladian windows and brass chandeliers.

Fort Worden State Park 

Fort Worden is an early 20th century U. S. Army (Coast Artillery Corps) fort. The Fort, as headquarters for the Puget Sound Harbor Defenses, held a strategically important position in the triangle of defensive forts constructed to protect the entrance to Puget Sound and to safeguard the naval shipyard at Bremerton. Twelve-gun batteries stand as mute testimony to the Fort's original purpose.

When Fort Worden was commissioned in 1902, there were no permanent buildings to house the troops. The men were billeted in tents atop Artillery Hill until the first 23 buildings were constructed around the parade ground in 1904. Ultimately, 228 main buildings and subsidiary structures were constructed—including barracks, officers' quarters, administration buildings, kitchen and mess halls, a bakery, guard house, hospital, power house, signal station and wharf.

Most military buildings of this era are long gone, but Fort Worden's have been preserved. These surviving quarters are excellent examples of the attractive order, style and grace of the new century. The designs were created by the U. S. Army fort wordenQuartermaster Department in order to make life more bearable for its soldiers in the often-isolated posts. 

Click HERE for more information about Fort Worden.