The Town of Colby, About 1908.

If you stand at the Southern entrance to the street currently known as “Cole Loop” and Yukon Harbor Drive, you can see a pair of pilings jutting up from the bay that are remnants of the original Mosquito Fleet pier that served Colby well into the 20th Century. JB Hall took a photograph provided by the Kitsap Historical Society and added known details, documenting the layout of the town and identifying the businesses and houses.

It takes only a slight bit of imagination to understand this fascinating photograph. It was undoubtedly taken from the bridge or upper deck of a “Mosquito Fleet” steamer, facing west. The tide is obviously quite low (note the rocky beach), and the foundation for a new building is being erected in the center foreground. JB Hall currently lives in the house identified as “Jos. Squire Grant, Jr” to the upper left. Note the abandoned wheel on the beach immediately below the store below Jos S Grant and son General Merchandise Store; That wheel still can be found at low tide today. Two other of the buildings shown here still stand today, as well.

Yukon Harbor Drive and, beyond, Southworth Road currently pass behind these houses, although the frontage road no longer exists.

To view the graphic image in greater detail, click the image.

The Harper Brick Factory and Bridge.

The Harper Brick and Tile Factory pictured above was a huge boon to industry in the local area. Below, is a tired but historical building once used as a “hotel and boarding house” for local workers, mostly those who worked in the factory. In later years it served as a brush plant, where decorative trees and flowers were processed and packaged for florists. Photos provided by AK Kuppler.

Allen “AK” Kuppler, whose family has visited and lived in the Harper area virtually all of his life, brought us a wealth of new documents relating to the Port Orchard Brick and Tile Factory and drawbridge that once existed along the shoreline between South Colby and Southworth. He has even found what he believes are the original central pulleys for the drawbridge mechanism.

We will add more details to all of this later, but for the time being we will share just a few of the dramatic historical documents he has provided.

Above are photos of the work crews about 1920  and 1935-ish.

AK (who has a gift for artistic expression) has given us this enhanced view of the current landscape around his house and the nearby estuary, including Harper Hill Road, Southworth Road, the Boat Ramp, and the surrounding neighborhood at the point. The main current road is along the bottom of the photograph, with dotted lines showing the location of the drawbridge. The Port Orchard Tile and Brick Factory was located in the lower righthand corner, where a baseball field is located today.

The second rendering (below) shows the region as it would have appeared about 1930, showing both the bridge and the roadway. Note the apparently active road along the beachfront, left, and the more extensive salt and freshwater marshes. Originally, AK reports, the only north-south route was across the drawbridge, as the road south from Colby was dedicated to the Brick Factory, lower right. A “hotel and boarding house” was also located along the present Southworth Road, at the bottom of  this picture. Also, AK has noted the location of portions of a barge that has been found near the northern entrance to the drawbridge structure.

These renderings were provided and created by Allen Kuppler, using local historical sources and his own surveys of the Harper Bridge site adjacent to the property on which he currently resides.