A Mansion in the Woods

by Milt Lum, staff writer

Once upon a time almost two centuries ago, there was a mansion in the woods. For a bright shining moment it heralded the period when Port Ludlow was the queen of the lumber ports. Back then there was a virgin forest of first growth Douglas Fir trees to be harvested, Yankee entrepreneurs with savvy and money to harvest the trees, and a period of global prosperity to market those trees. For its short existence, the mansion brought the world to the little village by the bay.

Our story begins with Cyrus Walker, a Maine school teacher and surveyor, whose ambition was to make $50,000 quickly. Viewing the recent discovery of gold in Canberra, Australia, as his path to instant riches, he purchased a ticket on a schooner headed there.

 As he viewed the aging ship in the New York harbor and contemplated the distance he was to travel, he decided that he could pursue his dream closer to home. He sold his ticket at a profit and returned to his hotel where he met E.S. Brown, a millwright from Maine. Brown was on his way to meet William Pope and Andrew Talbot, lumbermen also from Maine who were looking to expand their shipping and timber business to California. In their short time together, Brown convinced Walker that timber could be his road to riches.

During the trip to California, Walker assimilated enough knowledge of sawmill operation and timber harvesting that he convinced Talbot to give him a job. Upon arriving in San Francisco, Talbot realized that for their enterprise to prosper, they needed to explore new areas to harvest timber. Pope remained in California to establish their base, while Talbot took Walker with him to explore the Oregon Territory. On June, 1853, their ship, Pringle, anchored in Discovery Bay. Talbot, in the Pringle’s longboat, and Walker in a dugout canoe, explored the western shore of Admiralty Inlet and Hood Canal down to Dabob Bay without finding a suitable place with enough timber along the shoreline and a good harbor. On their trip back along the eastern shore of the Hood Canal, they entered Port Gamble and discovered a two-mile long harbor, heavily timbered banks, and a level spit — an ideal site for Talbot’s new lumber company, Puget Mill.

At the end of his one-year contract, Walker opted to remain with the company as it improved and expanded its sawmills in Port Gamble. Eight years later, with the sudden demise of the Puget Mill’s sawmill manager, Walker was offered the managerial position. He refused suggesting that he was about to move on. Talbot, recognizing the value of Walker’s experience, countered with an offer of a $30,000 loan to purchase a 10% share of their company. By then the Puget Mill Company had gone from a valuation of $30,000 to $300,000 in eight years. Walker saw his pathway to wealth come into focus.

In the subsequent years, Walker helped Puget Mill become the most profitable mill on the Sound. In 1878, during a period of low timber prices, Walker bought the Port Ludlow Mill Company. He revitalized it while accepting a subsidy of $900/month from rival mill owners to remain idle. When the economy improved, he expanded Puget Mill’s operations to Port Ludlow, creating a company town complete with homes for workers, a store, post office, and a school. The population swelled to over 300 residents including wives and children. At the center of it all was the Admiralty, aka “the biggest damn cabin on the sound”.

Walker had ordered the Admiralty built in Port Ludlow after his company home in Port Gamble was destroyed by a fire shortly after he had married Emily Francis Talbot in 1885. Completed in 1887, the 12 bedroom mansion, located on the hillside overlooking the harbor, had an elevator, a wine cellar, and a dining room to rival any found in the best hotels in San Francisco. The rooms were furnished with carved black walnut furniture from New England and Europe, and adorned with memorabilia from around the world. A cupola on the top of the home was topped with a flag pole. The lawn fronting the home was graced with maple and elm trees, and imported cedars of Lebanon. A bronze cannon, a relic of the War of 1812, was prominently displayed and fired every Fourth of July.

For all of its opulence, the Admiralty neither reflected Walker’s cultural tastes or a display of his material wealth. He was an austere New Englander who believed in hard work and eschewed fancy things. He was not a connoisseur of fine wines or international cuisines preferring instead cod fish and johnny cake cooked in the style of his hometown, Skowhegan, Maine. The Admiralty and its elegance were merely a backdrop for Walker to conduct his business and entertain his customers. He relied on a three-generation family of Chinese cooks to provide the meals for his guests. His wife, twenty-one years his junior and daughter of Andrew Talbot, managed the domestic affairs of the Admiralty with the decorum befitting the financial barons of the times. Walker’s acumen for business and his wife’s refined tastes accentuated the splendor of the mansion and Port Ludlow became the talk of the sound.

When Walker retired in 1910 due to infirmities associated with old age, the Admiralty became a hotel during the time when lumber was still profitable. It met an ignominious end by being destroyed in a fire. The only remnants of its grandeur remain in the photos buried in books and historical documents. “Sic transit gloria mundi”.