The Hotel that Lime Built

When I was up on San Juan Island in the spring, I visited Roche Harbor for the first time. The sheltered bay on the north end of the island is home to the Roche Harbor Resort, but the history goes back into the nineteenth century.

The harbor itself is named after Richard Roche, a British lieutenant stationed at nearby English Camp during the Pig War. After the British departed in 1872, the area ended up in the possession of the Scurr brothers, who started producing lime from the limestone ridge above the harbor. Kilned limestone was a hot commodity at the time for use in making steel, plaster, cement, and paper. The Scurr brothers quarried the limestone on the island and transported it to kilns not far from the water’s edge for easy shipment.

In 1886, Joseph McMillin bought the property and opened the Tacoma and Roche Harbor Lime Company. He then set about building a town for his workers to live and shop in. He built a new lime factory, a barrel works, warehouse, docks, offices, company store, a Methodist Church which served as a school on weekdays, post office, doctor’s office, barns and homes. Some of the quaint little cottages still remain, as does the company store. Roche Harbor had its own power, water, and telephone systems. It even had its own monetary system, as the workers were paid in script that could be used at the store.

The town was surprisingly multiethnic, with workers from Scandinavia, Russia, and Japan. Two dozen young Japanese men worked at Roche Harbor in the late 1800s. The story goes that they sent away to Japan for brides.

Besides the kilns, another old building stood on the property—a log cabin originally built by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1845. McMillin used it as the foundation for a grand hotel to accommodate important customers and visiting dignitaries. The Hotel de Haro featured nineteen elegantly appointed rooms, sweeping balconies overlooking the harbor, and a full dining room. McMillin got his wish as to famous visitors as well. Both President Teddy Roosevelt and President William Howard Taft stayed at the hotel during their terms of office.

Mrs. McMillin surrounded the hotel with beautiful flower and vegetable gardens, said to rival those of Mrs. Butchart across the water in Victoria. (Butchart Gardens, anyone?) She also built an arbor running from the dock up to the hotel. Each crossbeam held a saying that was only visible as guests left for the harbor and home. These included “Fare thee well and if forever still forever fare thee well” and “Your coming gives us pleasure. Your going gives us pain.”

The hotel and company felt their own pain during the Depression and World War I. In 1923, fire destroyed the warehouses, store, and wharf, but production gradually ceased as more modern and cost-effective ways to produce lime were developed.

But that’s not the end of the story. McMillin’s son sold the property to the Tarte family in 1956. The Tartes set about making Roche Harbor the premiere yachting destination. They restored the hotel to its former grandeur, reopening it in 1960, where it has since welcomed the rich and famous, including actor John Wayne. They enhanced the harbor with a marina and turned the McMillan’s old home along the water into a restaurant. They also built an airstrip nearby. New homes and condominiums line the bluffs behind the hotel. New shops are open along the waterfront. They were preparing to host a massive wedding when I visited in May.

The Hotel de Haro claims to be the longest continually operating hotel in Washington. From what I can see, it will keep that claim for some time to come.

La Belle Assemblée for the Win

Wowza!

I rather think that this Kensington Garden Walking Dress from the July 1809’s La Belle Assemblée can only be described as a complete and utter show-stopper. Can't you just see eyes widening and heads whipping around as our young lady, attired thus, ambles through the park on a fine early summer day!

The accompanying text reads as follows: A spenser bodice of pale pink sarsnet. White muslin dress, with double row of scollop lace forming a light flounce round the bottom, over which is worn a black lace mantle and train. Egyptian bonnet, composed of pink sarsnet and antique lace. Shoes and gloves of pale yellow. Amber necklace and earrings. Hair after the Egyptian manner. Parasol of pink and brown shot, with white fringe.

The pink spenser (with a slightly military air lent by the simple frogging down the front) and white muslin dress with rows of lace around the hem seem ordinary enough for a nice stroll along garden paths. The Egyptian bonnet, which looks like the offspring of a tricorn hat and a turban, wakes things up a bit, and the pink and brown shot (taffeta? silk?) parasol with white fringe is charming…

But then the ensemble takes a turn into Hollywood fantasy costume with that black lace mantle, set on the shoulders with a dramatic flaring collar (tied with a prosaic little cord!) It’s got an almost science fictional feel to it, that collar—but the lace turns that on its head and into I don’t know what! 

And dragging on the ground (yes, that’s right—a lace mantle as part of a walking dress.) Is it conspicuous consumption, utter frivolity, or...or what?

I think I need a little lie-down now—this print packs a wallop! How about you? Would you wear this on your next foray into Kensington park?

Tall Tales of Smugglers, and Napoleon

I’m researching smuggling along the Dorset coast of England in the early 1800s. (Lovely, lovely research!) My next self-published series will be set in the area in the days leading up to the Battle of Trafalgar. If you’re interested in the subject, I recommend Smuggling in Hampshire and Dorset 1700 to 1850 by Geoffrey Morley. Fascinating stories! I expected to find tales about secret tunnels and midnight raids, but some of the stories are so amazing, I couldn’t wait to share them with you.

Legend has it, Isaac Gulliver, called by some the King of the Smugglers, once covered his face with the white chalk of the Dorset soil and laid in a coffin to hide from the Excise Men. But legend also has it he foiled a plot to assassinate King George III, who praised him and vowed to let him smuggle all he liked. Smuggling increased dramatically in the area of Weymouth whenever the King came to visit.

Another story tells of two Preventers, as the Customs Officers were known, who were caught spying on a smuggling gang. The gang hung them by their feet over the edge of a cliff, then proceeded to unload their cargo in full view. When the smugglers were finished, they hauled up the officers and dumped them bound in a nearby field, where their colleagues would eventually find and release them.

And then there’s the story about a Dorset farmer’s wife, who happened to be French. She vowed she’d seen Napoleon standing on the headland not far from her home in 1803, studying the English defenses. This was at a time when England’s fear of invasion from across the Channel was at its highest. According to the legend, Napoleon looked down the coast, compared what he saw to a map in his hands, rolled up the map, uttered the word, “Impossible,” and was never seen again.

That one’s going in my book. 😊

Such Language! Part 24

It’s definitely time for more fun with 19^th century slang and cant, courtesy of that compendium of all bygone bad language, the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Enjoy!

Addle plot: A spoil-sport, a mar-all. (Jane insisted on wearing a heavy veil to Richmond Park because of an outbreak of spots on her chin, and was a horrid addle plot at what was supposed to be a lovely spring day’s picnic.)

Grig: A fellow as merry as a grig: an allusion to the apparent liveliness of a grig, or young eel. (But she was as merry as a grig after she read that rubbing lemons on them would make then vanish.)

Duke of limbs: A tall awkward fellow. (Cousin Ralph has grown eight inches since last Easter, and is the veriest duke of limbs.)

Bell swagger: A noisy bullying fellow. (Ernest, Ralph’s bell swagger of an elder brother no longer dares to try to thrash him during school holidays.)

Crabbed: Sour, ill-tempered, difficult. (My Great-aunt Agatha’s toy spaniel is so dreadfully crabbed that even Uncle Fred’s gamekeeper is afraid of it.)

All the crack: The fashionable theme, the go. (Of course, the only reason Aunt Agatha even has a spaniel is because she had heard that lap-dogs were all the crack, and she never passes up a chance to demonstrate just how fashionable she is.)

Rum Ned: A very rich silly fellow. Cant. (Lord Lucre’s waistcoat buttons set with pigeon’s blood rubies have earned him a reputation as a very rum Ned indeed.)

Grouping for the Love of the Nineteenth Century

Facebook Groups are all the rage for a variety of organizations, but readers and authors are also using them to connect and share their love of books. Here are a few you might not know about, related to romances from our beloved nineteenth century.

Regency Kisses: Lady Catherine’s Salon

I am delighted to join with Gail Eastwood, Charlotte Henry, Mary Kingswood, Anna St. Clair, Martine Roberts, Catherine Tinley, and Lynn Winchester to share sweet Regency-set romances with readers. Our patroness, Lady Catherine, hosts an author a week, with special guests, games, reviews of Regency novels, and historical tidbits. We are planning a big party for Twelfth Night in January. Come join us!

The Beau Monde

Sponsored by the Regency Special Interest Chapter of Romance Writers of America, this Facebook group is a diverse collection of readers and authors who all have a love of the Regency Era. The purpose of the group is to celebrate quality in the subgenre and the efforts of the authors who write the stories we love to read. Many Regency romance authors announce their new releases here.

Regency Readers & Writers

This is an open page for all readers, writers, and aspiring writers of Jane Austen and Regency-inspired fiction. All are welcome to discuss their favorite Austen works and variations, and any original stories in the works.

Historical Romance Book Club

Love more than the nineteenth century? This book club looks across historical romance set in any time period or location, whether recently published or older.

Austen Readers

Prefer your romances connected to Jane Austen? This group is for Jane Austen Fan Fiction authors and readers to share new and newly discovered books to love.

If you know of others, please post them! There’s something magical about connecting with other readers who share your passion!

Regency Fabrics, Part 26

Here’s another post in our ongoing series on Regency fabrics.

As I have in previous posts, I’ll be examining actual fabric samples glued into several earlier editions of Ackermann’s Repository, samples supplied by the manufacturers and published by Ackermann in order to boost the British cloth-making industry at a time when exporting British goods to Europe was almost impossible because of the Napoleonic war. I'll give you a close-up scan of each sample, the published description if available, and my own observations of the color, weight, condition, and similarity to present-day materials, to give you as close a picture as possible of what these fabrics are like.

Today’s four samples are from the September 1812 issue of Ackermann’s Repository. The overall condition of my copy is very good; the page itself is free of foxing and barely, if at all, toned; the sample in white has suffered some foxing, but that's probably unavoidable.

Here we go!

 
No. 1. A celestial blue imperial striped sarsnet, adapted for pelisses, spencers, evening robes, and mantles. Silk fringe of the same colour, matted crape, Spanish binding, and thread lace, or net, are the only appropriate trimmings for articles of this delicate and pliant material. It is sold by Messrs. George and Bradley, mercers, No. 19, Holywell-street, Strand.

My comments: Alas, it’s no longer possible to see just how celestial the blue was in this sarsnet was: only a hint of color can be seen now. The fabric itself, though, is lovely stuff: it possesses a delightfully silky hand and a shimmer that would indeed make for a beautiful “evening robe.”  

No  2. A sea-weed ground printed cambric, so evidently calculated for the humble order of morning and domestic wear, that no further remark is necessary, than to recommend robes of this article to be made high in the neck, with long sleeves, and frills or collars of lace or needle-work. We are furnished with this print from the house of Harris and Co. No.1, Picket-st. Temple Bar.

My comments:  A nice, sturdy cambric fabric, evenly woven. The background seaweed print is finely printed in a tannish orange; the larger brown pattern has either run, or wasn’t as well printed in the first place, having left brown streaks on the background.

No. 3. A beautiful fancy silver paper for ladies’ work-tables, boxes, card-racks, &c. When made up, it exhibits the appearance of the red sea-weed, strained on a white satin or silver ground. Work-tables, with ebony and gold frames and feet, or japanned to that effect, are a most unique, elegant, and useful article for the boudoir. For card or work-boxes the narrow embossed gold or silver border is a appropriate finish at the edges. This simple and tasteful article is from Ackermann’s, 101, Strand.

My comments: Okay, forget what I said about the samples being in good condition. While it’s just possible to see the seaweed pattern and a hint of red on this sturdy but not too thick paper, the silvery background has long since oxidized away, alas—it must have been pretty. I have to wonder, by the by, why there's a paper sample amongst the fabrics; did a fabric merchant forget to send along his samples?

No. 4. A striped Scotch jaconot muslin, designed for the morning dress and children’s ware. Lace, or borders of double or plaited muslin, are the only becoming and consistent trimmings for robes of this article. It is sold by Charles Cooper and Co. No. 47, Fleet-street.

My comments: Very finely woven and, as a result, very sheer...but also very pretty and delicate. Charming as a child’s smock, or in a morning dress over a lining or slip.

What do you think of this month’s fabrics?

 

Glamping in the Trees: Storybook Perfect!

I recently had a birthday, turning over another decade. And I wanted to do something special. Some poking around for opportunities led me and my husband into the woods to the north of us, to Treehouse Place at Deer Ridge, near Lake Stevens, Washington. I thought you might get as big a kick out of visiting as I did.

To start out, the approach to the house begins on Sasquatch Lane. (Big fan of Sasquatch, the Ape Man of the Northwest—have been since I was a kid.)

You climb up through the trees on a lighted path.

Until you see the house.

Now, it’s not completely up in the trees, but it’s on the edge of a hill, so the view out truly makes you feel as if you were singing with the birds.

Inside, it’s a darling cabin. Here's the main floor. Yes, that’s a soaker tub.

Bedroom.

An Alexa is available to dim the lights for you. My husband and I got a big kick out of telling her what to do and asking questions. She answered my husband back more than she did me. Hmmm. 

If you need more to stimulate you, nearby Lake Stevens is gorgeous too!

Treehouse Place at Deer Ridge is on Airbnb and was mentioned in USA Today. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend. For this writer, it was storybook perfect. 😊