1906 Photograph of St. Paul’s Church in Port Gamble

In 1853, Mainers Josiah Keller, Andrew Pope and William Talbot established a sawmill on a spit at the entrance of Port Gamble, a two-mile bay at the mouth of Hood Canal named by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes during an 1841 U.S. Navy expedition.

The area’s original inhabitants, the S’Klallam, called the site Teekalet, or “brightness of the noonday sun.” Talbot assigned the name to his mill, which would process timber for the next 142 years.

Port Gamble’s St. Paul’s Church from a 1906 photograph.

In addition to building Kitsap County’s first school in 1859, the mill also built the Union Congregational Church in 1879 in a style reminiscent of New England churches.

This photograph, dated 1906, is part of the Library of Congress’ Historic American Buildings Survey collection. Today, St. Paul’s Anglican Church holds weekly evening prayer services.