Area memories set in stone in massive Port Townsend compass

PORT TOWNSEND — In 2004, a sailor named Mel Miller bought a paver for the Compass Rose to support the capital campaign of the planned Northwest Maritime Center.

Miller designated that the name of his boat, Perpetua, and the date it was launched, 1936, be inscribed on the stone.

The next year, Miller died, and his friends, wanting to do something in his memory, went together and bought another paver.

Its inscription: “Capt. Mel Miller, 1925-2005, Your Dock Friends.”

Those pavers are two of 1,500 stones set last week in the Northwest Maritime Center’s compass rose in the commons, a waterfront plaza that is taking shape in front of the two center buildings at the end of Water Street.

Scheduled to be officially unveiled at the Wooden Boat Festival in September, the eight-point Compass Rose not only shows the cardinal directions, but is also a mosaic of North Olympic Peninsula life.

“People put their names, and the names of their spouses, their children, their grandchildren, their pets and their boats on the pavers,” said Len Goldstein, the center’s capital campaign manager.

Spouses’ names, however, sometimes create a problem. When the Northwest Maritime Center staff started selling pavers seven years ago, the project was emerging from the planning stage.

When construction started last year, Goldstein sent out an e-mail asking people to confirm their message before she sent the order to the company inscribing the stones.

She got several responses from couples who had purchased a paver with their names on it, then got divorced.

“One man called and said he forgot to respond to the e-mail by the deadline,” Goldstein said. “When I read him the two names on the inscription, he said, ‘That’s my ex-wife.'”

Goldstein tried to be accommodating. But making the changes, plus making sure everyone’s inscription was correct in the first place, was a perfectionist’s nightmare.

“A typo in a book is one thing,” she said. “An idea of a typo on an engraved stone — that was the cause of many sleepless nights.”

The length of time worked in the center’s favor with a former Port Townsend resident who bought 13 pavers, the most for one person. He bought half in 2002 and half last year, Goldstein said, so now has one for each of his children, grandchildren and in-laws. Others were ordered by a parent to mark a daughter’s wedding. Some are love notes to spouses or were dedicated to spouses as a surprise from the buyers.

“They plan to bring the husband or wife over and show it to them,” Goldstein said.

That will be during the Wooden Boat Festival in September, when the plaza, called First Federal Commons for the saving and loan’s $50,000 donation, will be open to the public. Of the 1,500 pavers purchased in support of the project, Port Townsend residents accounted for 745, almost half of the total.

Port Hadlock residents bought 39; Port Ludlow, 38; Port Angeles, 25; and Sequim 20.

Off the Peninsula, Seattle residents accounted for 117 pavers; California, 43; New Mexico, 4; and Canada, 4, Goldstein said. The paver purchaser from the farthest away: Jonas Goodall of Denmark.

“He was at the Wooden Boat Festival last year and saw us selling them,” Goldstein said.

Other issues that arose: A Seattle resident bought five pavers, one for each of his grandchildren, who live in Port Ludlow. The problem — the youngest child hadn’t been named yet, so the grandfather made up a first name to put on his paver, she said.

Goldstein herself came up with a solution to another dilemma. A Canadian, Chris Higgins came to the festival booth and wanted to buy a paver. When Goldstein pointed out that a staff member, also named Chris Higgins, already had a paver with “The Chris Higgins Clan” on it, he said, “That’s what I was going to put on my paver.”

“So I suggested, just jokingly, that he put “The Higgins, Eh!” on it,” Goldstein said, “and he loved the idea. So he did.”

Celebrity pavers include the one Katie Smith of Port Ludlow bought for her daughter, Chimacum High School graduate Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith, the “Legally Blond” screenwriter whose latest movie, “The Ugly Truth,” opened this week.

It has Kirsten Smith’s name with “Writer-Filmmaker” underneath.

Designed by Miller/Hull, the 1,500 pavers arrived in mid-July from PaverArt in New Jersey on 13 pallets, with sections put together like a jigsaw puzzle, Goldstein said. A surveyor was brought in to orient the Compass Rose to true north — magnetic north varies — and work began last week. Standing on the south point at night, a person looking at north point, 50 feet away, then straight up, will see the North Star, Goldstein said. After the pavers are set in place, a binding sand will be added to seal the work, site supervisor Korey Smith said.

Talking with people and learning the stories behind the stones was the best part of the project, Goldstein said.

“People who are doing it for a loved one will talk to you,” she said. “They want you to know why that person was important to them.”

Goldstein’s own paver is the name of her and her husband’s boat, QuickBeam. Her favorite inscription, however, is the one by Wooden Boat Foundation volunteer Johann Thaheld: “Whenever you get a chance to write your name in stone, take it.”

________

Port Townsend reporter Jennifer Jackson can be reached at jjackson@olypen.com.

More in News

Rear Admiral Charles E. Fosse, right, U.S. Coast Guard District 13 commander, was the guest speaker at the U.S. Coast Guard Station Port Angeles’ annual Veterans Day celebration on Monday. Chaplain Mike VanProyen, left, and Kelly Higgins, the commanding officer at Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles, also participated in the ceremony. (Paula Hunt/Peninsula Daily News)
Hundreds gather in Port Angeles to honor service members

High school band, choral groups highlight event

Former Marine Joseph Schwann of Port Townsend smiles as he receives a Quilt of Valor from Kathy Darrow, right, and another member of Quilts of Valor during the Veterans Day event at the American Legion Marvin G. Shields Memorial Post 26 in Port Townsend on Monday. Group leader Kathey Bates, left, was the emcee of the event. (Steve Mullensky/for Peninsula Daily News)
Quilts of Valor

Former Marine Joseph Schwann of Port Townsend smiles as he receives a… Continue reading

Port Townsend ethics complaint dismissed

Officer examines argument on open meetings

Friends of the Library to host annual meeting

The Port Angeles Friends of the Library will conduct… Continue reading

Peninsula College to stage ‘The Thanksgiving Play’

Peninsula College will present its production of “The Thanksgiving… Continue reading

Ceramic sculpture “Flora-Fauna” by Thomas Connery.
Library to host reception for ‘Second Look’ exhibition

The North Olympic Library System will host a reception… Continue reading

Sequim City Council members finalized through their consent agenda to ban the sale of fireworks effective October 2025. They held a public hearing last month that garnered mostly support for the ban. (Matthew Nash/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
Sequim finalizes ban on fireworks

Ordinance change will go into effect next October

Matthew Nash/Olympic Peninsula News Group
Rich Krebsbach, manager of the Highland Irrigation District, asks questions of Rhiana Barkie, Clallam County public works project coordinator. The map is one of four new options for the Dungeness Off-Channel Reservoir project. Public input is being taken through the county’s website at https://www.clallamcountywa.gov/188/Dungeness-Off-Channel-Reservoir-Project.
Sequim reservoir project draws crowd, questions

Clallam County, FEMA public comment period open through Nov. 21

Christmas gift inspires playground cleanup

Veteran volunteer collects playground metal

Weekly flight operations scheduled

There will be field carrier landing practice operations for aircraft… Continue reading

World War II veteran Arthur Bradow, right, and his daughter Barbara Cason admire a quilt sewn by his niece for his 100th birthday on Dec. 13. Bradow served in the Merchant Marine in the Pacific Theater of Operations and stateside in the U.S. Army Air Forces. (Paula Hunt/Peninsula Daily News)
Veteran has 100 years’ worth of experience

Looks back at long life and wealth of knowledge