Page 1 - FINAL EARLY SPRING 2019 SWHS Newsletter

South Whidbey Historical Society

Now & TheN
Now & TheN

Early Spring 2019 www.SouthWhidbeyHistory.org www.facebook.com/SouthWhidbeyHistory

From dockside stores to corner groceries
Trading posts, mercantiles, general stores

and corner groceries on South Whidbey

Before there were roads on South
Whidbey, people moved from place to
place via canoes, rowboats, schooners,
‘Mosquito fleet’ steamers, and later
on, the ferries.
Trading Posts and Early Stores
Central and North Whidbey were
the first parts of the Island to see the
influx of white settlers.
The first store on Whidbey Island
opened in 1853 at Coveland (Coupe-
ville) by Captain B. P. Barstow. That
same year South Whidbey’s first re-
corded white settler arrived: Robert
Bailey. He established a trading post
on his property in 1859 at Bailey’s
Bay (now Cultus Bay). The Glendale Store shown
Fifty years later a small school, and in 1907 (right) and in 1908
(above) was owned by James
then a larger one about 1912 (Ingle- and Jane Peck.
side School), would be built at Bailey’s
Corner. After South Whidbey schools
consolidated, the school became a gen-
eral store, which it remains to this day. t Brothers Bill and Earl Peterson
An 1883 article in the Seattle bought out the Pecks and in 1911 built
Post-Intelligencer reported that John a two-story building across the lane
G. Phinney began to build a village at which housed a store, post office and
lodgings.
Port George (later called Phinney). He
ran a logging camp and also sold real
estate from there. In fact, in 1881 he
sold 120 acres to 16-year-old Jacob
Anthes for $100.
Phinney had a dock, a small store
and a post office. (The site is located A little farther south, Charles and Mabel
at the end of Marshall Road where Payne built a dock, store and post office
Jim & John’s Resort was later built.) at Possession in the 1920s, not far from
John Phinney disappeared in 1895 the Giant Powder dock. u

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