Tuesday, June 10, 2014

June 10, 2014 Local History at Browns Point Lighthouse and Cottage

Today was the last field trip of the year and this one was just five minutes from Seabury School. 

We visited the 111 year old home of Oscar and Annie Brown, the first lightkeeper and his wife of Browns Point, Washington. We learned all about local history including the story of when the explorer, George Vancouver, visited the area. We also learned about early inhabitants and the "mosquito fleet", we saw a replica of the handmade wooden boat Mr. Brown used to go back and forth to Tacoma, we sat in an early 19th century school room and we experienced the ways people lived in a home without electricity. The docents, two ladies from the Points Northeast Historical Society, told us some great stories and shared their passion for keeping local Browns Point history alive. 

The cottage

The working lighthouse (run by the Coast Guard and hence the fence)
Rebuilt in 1933 and automated in 1963

Imagining the "mosquito fleet, " a group of boats that ran hither and thither (like mosquitoes)  before there were roads between the various settlements along the coast 


The Navigators have been sharing oral history. 
This is a story of George Vancouver eating a meal with the local Native Americans on the Browns Point beach

A replica of Mr. Brown's handmade wooden boat in the boat house

The antique tools that were used to make the boat

Boring a hole with a hand tool

Ready for school--June 10, 1930

Attentive and ready to learn

Learning about the ink wells

Pumping water in the kitchen

The typewriter--a precursor to a keyboard!

Cooking on a wood burning stove

Ringing the bell
The bell clapper was and is a bowling ball. 



Did Mr. Brown's music students play outside over 100 years ago?





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