The Belmont

02/01/2025

WELCOME TO BELMONT HOTEL IN PORT TOWNSEND

The Belmont Hotel is located upstairs in the Sterming Block (1889) at 925 Water St. along the waterfront in Port Townsend, WA. All the services your getaway deserves – food, entertainment, spa treatment, art, history, shopping, etc. – are within easy walking distance downtown.
The Sterming Block (which is what a building with multiple storefronts is called) was part of Port Townsend’s Victorian-era construction boom. It opened with the Belmont Saloon and a restaurant on the ground floor, and offices upstairs. At some point the offices were converted into apartments – possibly in the late 1930s which brought an influx of U.S. Army personnel to Fort Worden and a local housing shortage ensued. In 1985 the upstairs rooms were converted into a four-room hotel.
Sterming Block came under new ownership in 2018 and has been remodeled, renovated and preserved, top to bottom. In 2020, the Washington State Main Street Association awarded The Belmont with an Excellence on Main Award for Bricks & Mortar Rehabilitation.
The Belmont restaurant closed in 2019. The ground-floor space is now The Waterfront at Sterming Place, an event venue (with catering kitchen) for business and social gatherings. Learn more at our website, https://www.thebelmontpt.com
For reservations in our four-room hotel, call us at 360-385-3007 or see our website at https://www.thebelmontpt.com
Pictured here is a building photo from the mid-1950s (Jefferson County Historical Society), and a photo from 2024 (Cynthia Woerner Photography).

01/29/2025

PLAN FOR THESE 2025 EVENTS IN PORT TOWNSEND

Early in the year is a great time to plan your 2025 visit to Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula. Overnight accommodations can be in short supply on festival weekends (or any summer weekend).

Here are some of the key dates that may help you plan your visit in 2025. Also, there are various live music and other performances (not listed here) at nearby Chimacum, Port Hadlock and Quilcene, for example. For now, plan ahead in Port Townsend for:

MAY
-- Port Townsend Victorian Heritage Festival, May 2-4. (Previously staged in April). Heritage Festival walking tour guests are pictured here outside The James & Hastings Building (1889) at the corner of Water and Tyler streets where Port Townsend’s first log cabin was erected in 1851. The “Victorian Square” business was established in 1997.
--90th Rhododendron Festival is May 14-18; Grand Parade May 17, Rhody Run May 18.
--42nd Classic Mariners Regatta, May 31-June 1.

JUNE
--Brass Screw Consortium & Steam Punk Hootenanny, June 13-15.
--WA360 Adventure Race, for motorless watercraft, June 28.
--Centrum Fiddle Tunes Workshop & Festival, June 29-July 6.*

JULY
--Centrum Port Townsend Writer’s Conference, July 13-20.*
--Centrum Jazz Port Townsend Workshop & Festival, July 20-27*
--Centrum Acoustic Blues Workshop & Festival, July 27-Aug. 3*

AUGUST
--Jefferson County Fair, Aug. 8-10.
--Uptown Street Fair & Craft Show, Aug. 16
--36th Port Townsend Kiwanis Classic Car Show, Aug. 17.

SEPTEMBER
--48th Wooden Boat Festival, Sept. 5-7.
--26th Port Townsend Film Festival, Sept. 18-21.

OCTOBER
--41st Great Port Townsend Bay Kinetic Skulpture Race, Oct. 4-5.

*Centrum announced Jan. 29, 2025 that a full schedule of festivals, workshops, performances and other events is planned for 2025 at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend. Centrum plans to offer food service and accommodations for participants, and food options for event attendees. As of Jan. 29, Fort Worden has no upper campus overnight accommodations for the general publc. Washington State Park campgrounds are open.

THE BELMONT HOTEL
The four-room waterfront Belmont Hotel in the Sterming Block Building at 925 Water St. is located in the heart of downtown Port Townsend. Call us at 360-385-3007 or see our website at https://www.thebelmontpt.com

01/25/2025

PORT TOWNSEND ROOMS WITH A VIEW

When you’re traveling to the Olympic Peninsula, please consider our four-suite Belmont Hotel along the waterfront in the heart of historic downtown Port Townsend, WA. The Belmont Hotel offers private, keyless entry with two waterfront rooms (with deck, as pictured) and two townview rooms. King bed and private bath for each room; the waterfront rooms also feature a loft with a queen bed. All the services your getaway deserves – food, entertainment, spa treatment, art, history, shopping, etc. – are within easy walking distance.

The Belmont Hotel is located at 925 Water St., upstairs in the restored Sterming Block Building (1889). Make reservations by calling The Belmont Hotel at 360-385-3007 or on our website at https://www.thebelmontpt.com
-- Cynthia Woerner Photography

01/22/2025

AERIAL VIEW OF PORT TOWNSEND, CIRCA 1927

Our Belmont Hotel (Sterming Block Building, 1889) is easily located in this aerial view of Port Townsend, WA, circa 1927. Our hotel is in the two-story brick building on the waterfront located smack-dab between the two major downtown wharves shown here: Tyler Street Wharf (left) and Union Wharf (right). Our flat-roofed building stands out along the waterfront contrasted with its four upstairs windows, and four downstairs windows.
This photo was taken by Brubaker Aerial Survey of Portland, OR, at the time one of the Pacific Northwest’s most prominent aerial photography companies.
Dating an otherwise undated “historic” photo involves plenty of research and a bit of guesswork. We know this photo was taken after April 6, 1923, when the W.H. Learned Opera House (1888) burned. Also missing is the Yee Sing Wo Kee Building, a two-story wood structure that burned in April of 1926. It was located against the bluff along Washington Street at the intersection with Adams Street, adjacent to the opera house that burned in 1923. Still standing today in this otherwise burned-out section is the brick Bishop Block (1890), at the corner of Washington and Quincy.
The photo appears to be taken after Nov. 11, 1926, when the Central Hotel at corner of Water and Taylor streets (next door to the Sterming Block) burned, and was replaced by 1930 with a brick building that remains today. The quality of jpg image makes it difficult to determine conclusively whether the Central Hotel exists in this photo. Our “guesswork” indicates the Central Hotel is gone, dating this photo after the fire and before the rebuild, so circa 1927.
The small boats tied up to Tyler Street Wharf could be patrol boats from the U.S. Coast Guard’s “rum fleet,” which headquartered here in efforts to intercept alcohol being smuggled in from Canada during the Prohibition years (1920-1933). There are other Port Townsend photos showing the patrol boats tied up in this manner. The photo is definitely prior to Oct. 21, 1934, when a storm collapsed the Tyler Street Wharf.
Many but not all of the buildings shown here remain. Among the largest of the missing structures is the multi-story building, to the right, three blocks up from the waterfront. This was the U.S. Marine Hospital, built in 1895 to take care of old sailors (civilian, mostly), for short-time health treatment and long-time care. It was used until 1933, used briefly during World War II for other purposes, and finally demolished in 1971.
At the upper right far background lies Fort Worden, then a busy U.S. Army Coast Artillery base, now a state park.
Port Townsend has two National Historic Districts to explore, and our centrally-located, four-room Belmont Hotel is a great launching pad. For hotel reservations, call The Belmont Hotel at 360-385-3007 or see our website at https://www.thebelmontpt.com
–Historical research by Patrick J. Sullivan (If you have more info, please share!)

01/18/2025

SAILING SEASON IN PORT TOWNSEND

Sailors are gearing up for the 2025 racing season on Port Townsend Bay, which includes the 34th Port Townsend Shipwright’s Regatta on Feb. 22 (a regatta scene pictured here with Jefferson County Courthouse in background); the 42nd Classic Mariners Regatta the weekend of May 31-June 1, and the 48th Wooden Boat Festival set Sept. 5-7.
While the daunting Race to Alaska (Port Townsend to Victoria to Ketchikan) motorless race returns in 2026, this year (June 28) marks the return of the WA360 Adventure Race. Sponsored by Northwest Maritime, this is a 360-mile, engineless, unsupported boat race through “the worst and most diverse water puzzles Washington State offers” beginning and ending in Port Townsend.
The Port Townsend Sailing Association hosts a series of races on Wednesday evenings, April through August. Belmont Hotel guests can watch PTSA races from our two waterfront rooms sharing a deck overlooking Port Townsend Bay.
The Belmont Hotel is located at 925 Water St., upstairs in the restored Sterming Block Building (1889). Make reservations by calling The Belmont Hotel at 360-385-3007 or on our website at https://www.thebelmontpt.com
--File Photo by Patrick J. Sullivan

01/15/2025

POINT WILSON LIGHTHOUSE BACK IN THE RED

The Point Wilson Lighthouse in Port Townsend, WA, again shines with a hint of red against the backdrop of Mount Baker, a 10,785-foot peak in the North Cascades.
This lighthouse property at Point Wilson, where the Strait of Juan de Fuca meets Puget Sound, is managed by the private U.S. Lighthouse Society. It has not been an official aid to navigation since the light was decommissioned in 1976; nautical navigation through Admiralty Inlet is handled with visual, radar and GPS placement. However, in Fall of 2024 the Lighthouse Society, after completing a U.S. Coast Guard certification process, restored the original Fresnel lens.
The Fresnel lens was made in France and installed at Point Wilson in 1879, when the light tower was atop the adjacent lightkeeper’s house. The Fresnel was relocated into the lighthouse when it opened in 1913. The lighthouse was automated in 1976 and the Fresnel lens decommissioned in 2007, but was never removed.
Thanks to the Lighthouse Society, it’s working again! The motorized light completes one rotation per minute, projecting a white light with a red flash every 20 seconds. It is visible from 16 miles away by water.
The Point Wilson Lighthouse property is closed for the season; public tours are to resume in April. The U.S. Lighthouse Society is planning a fundraising celebration in May of 2025.
Fort Worden and Point Wilson are must-see places when you visit Port Townsend, where our Belmont Hotel is located at 925 Water St. in the historic downtown district. For hotel reservations, call us at 360-385-3007 or see our website at https://www.thebelmontpt.com
–Photo by Patrick J. Sullivan

01/11/2025

Finally retired, going to have some fun without a second phone ringing during dinners out with friends or texting during a movie at the Rose! Lookout BFF here I come!

BELMONT HOTEL ANNOUNCES NEW MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

An operational transition is underway at our Belmont Hotel in downtown Port Townsend, WA, with the retirement of our hotel and building manager, Marilou R. Sullivan.
Port Townsend born and raised, Marilou had retired as a utility company executive when a few years later she found herself enlisted to manage a downtown Port Townsend building with an overnight accommodation. That led to the management of more buildings and overnight accommodations in and near Port Townsend. That unique skill set led her in 2019 to become manager of the Sterming Block Building (1889) and Belmont Hotel, which under new ownership had updated the hotel rooms and begun a building-wide restoration project.
Now, in early 2025, Marilou (pictured here) is retiring for the last time. Her commitment to customer service has been second to none. She will be greatly missed, by the building owners and our many guests who know her by name, and/or a voice on the phone, if not in person.
Thank you, Marilou!
The change requires The Belmont Hotel to adapt operations.
VACASA Vacation Rentals has been contracted to provide guest reservation and hotel hospitality services. VACASA already manages a number of hotel and other guest accommodations in and near Port Townsend. Guests making Belmont Hotel reservations can expect to receive emails from VACASA. Our regular Belmont Hotel phone number connects with VACASA representatives.
For Belmont Hotel reservations, call 360-385-3007 or see our website at https://www.thebelmontpt.com
Information about our new “event space,” The Waterfront at Sterming Place, may be found on our Belmont Hotel website or by calling 360-385-4353. Located on the Sterming Block Building’s ground floor, the space is suitable for weddings, parties, social gatherings and other functions. It includes a waterfront deck.
--Photo by Benson Alvarez

01/11/2025

BELMONT HOTEL ANNOUNCES NEW MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

An operational transition is underway at our Belmont Hotel in downtown Port Townsend, WA, with the retirement of our hotel and building manager, Marilou R. Sullivan.
Port Townsend born and raised, Marilou had retired as a utility company executive when a few years later she found herself enlisted to manage a downtown Port Townsend building with an overnight accommodation. That led to the management of more buildings and overnight accommodations in and near Port Townsend. That unique skill set led her in 2019 to become manager of the Sterming Block Building (1889) and Belmont Hotel, which under new ownership had updated the hotel rooms and begun a building-wide restoration project.
Now, in early 2025, Marilou (pictured here) is retiring for the last time. Her commitment to customer service has been second to none. She will be greatly missed, by the building owners and our many guests who know her by name, and/or a voice on the phone, if not in person.
Thank you, Marilou!
The change requires The Belmont Hotel to adapt operations.
VACASA Vacation Rentals has been contracted to provide guest reservation and hotel hospitality services. VACASA already manages a number of hotel and other guest accommodations in and near Port Townsend. Guests making Belmont Hotel reservations can expect to receive emails from VACASA. Our regular Belmont Hotel phone number connects with VACASA representatives.
For Belmont Hotel reservations, call 360-385-3007 or see our website at https://www.thebelmontpt.com
Information about our new “event space,” The Waterfront at Sterming Place, may be found on our Belmont Hotel website or by calling 360-385-4353. Located on the Sterming Block Building’s ground floor, the space is suitable for weddings, parties, social gatherings and other functions. It includes a waterfront deck.
--Photo by Benson Alvarez

01/08/2025

WHAT’S ON TOP OF THE BELMONT

Union Wharf (with Gunther, the Gray Whale skeleton) and the Sterming Block Building’s cornice as viewed, telescopically, from the Port Townsend bluff. The peaked skylight on our Sterming Block (1889) was part of the original design. The rooftop mechanical equipment and vents are modern additions.
The Sterming Block opened with a saloon and restaurant at street level, and offices on the second floor. Those offices in 1985 were turned into four hotel rooms. The last incarnation of a restaurant was closed in 2018.
From 2019-2023, the building’s new owners had the Sterming Block rebuilt, rehabilitated and in some cases, remodeled. In 2020, the Washington State Main Street Association awarded The Belmont with the 2020 Excellence on Main Award for Bricks & Mortar Rehabilitation “to recognize building owners or programs that positively impact preservation efforts.”
In 2024, the Belmont / Waterfront at Sterming Place opened as a street-level “event space” suitable for weddings, parties, social gatherings and other events.
For hotel reservations, call us at 360-385-3007 or see our website at https://www.thebelmontpt.com
--Photo by Patrick J. Sullivan

01/03/2025

BELMONT GUEST REVIEW: 5 STARS FOR LOCATION, ROMANTIC, QUIET

It’s true that our four-room Belmont Hotel in downtown Port Townsend, WA, is unique. We are in an 1889 brick building, one of the few waterfront accommodation venues, and we intentionally have no televisions (yes, our Wifi connection is strong).
Thanks to Bill H., who left the Belmont Hotel this Google review after staying here recently:
“It’s hard to measure service when you never see anyone. No TV, no music, only the sound of waves and seagulls. We sat and talked for hours…. sitting in winged back chairs in our room. Find joy in the moment.”
Bill gave The Belmont Hotel a 5-star Google review for our Rooms. 5 stars for our location. “Hotel highlights: Romantic. Quiet.”
We offer private, keyless entry with two waterfront rooms and two streetside rooms. King bed and private bath for each room; our two waterfront rooms each has a loft with a queen bed. Make reservations by calling The Belmont Hotel at 360-385-3007 or on our website at https://www.thebelmontpt.com

The Belmont Hotel (c.1889) is located in the center of historic downtown Port Townsend, Washington,