08/27/2026
History Tidbit
“The old Pacific House in Oysterville was built in the early (18)70s by Richard Caruthers...This was the largest hotel in the county, and being at the county seat and on the main line of travel, it enjoyed splendid transient trade as well as that of regular boarders who were attracted by the superior service and generous supply of eatables placed before them. Oysters and clams were served daily, and fish and game were nearly always to be found on the tables...
Richard’s wife Mary Caruthers and her assistant Laura Sheppy were instrumental in the running of the Pacific House. “No person ever appealed to either of these two ladies for shelter or food without having their wants supplied, whether they had any money or not. The passengers leaving on the stage at four in the morning were always given a bountiful breakfast before leaving.
There was a bar in connection with the hotel, and as Oysterville was a wide open town in those days, there always was a crowd around the house, especially in the winter time when many of the loggers would lay off for the season and would not again go to work until they were flat broke. A great many people were attracted here to spend their summer vacation, and when the annual regatta was being held on the bay, the town was crowded with pleasure seekers. In the year of the centennial, the “Gussie Telfair,” a seagoing steamer, ran direct from Portland to Oysterville with a large crowd of passengers to attend the regatta held at that time wherein Ed Loomis, with his crack sloop “Artemisia,” headed the fleet.”
The Pacific House continued in operation long after the passing of Mr. & Mrs. Caruthers.
“When the railroad was completed to Nahcotta and the stage stopped running to Oysterville, and the county seat took a trip across the bay to South Bend, the hotel business rapidly declined, and later the hotel was torn down.
Other historic business houses occupying the corners of old Oysterville in the immediate vicinity of the Pacific House and all of which exist no more, included the Methodist Church, which was the community center of the town for all the doings that included the women and children, the Dan Rodway saloon right across the way, that figured strongly in the midnight revelries of the men, the Swan restaurant where eats and drinks were served day and night, the I.S. Jones store, dry goods and general merchandise. These buildings and their activities constituted the Main Street of Oysterville in its halcyon days.”
Excerpt of Pioneer History by Mrs. W.D. Taylor, by State Interviewer - R.W. Campbell 1936-1937
CPHM Photo Collection: Pacific House, Oysterville, c 1870, printed by Charles Fitzpatrick. (1984.022 Potter)
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