Art + History Museum Presents Variations on the Theme of ‘Home’, Edifice Reopens This Weekend

What’s it like to live off the grid? 

What made the Town Tavern the place to be? 

How do you make a 134-year-old museum building more inviting? 

The Jefferson Art + History Museum has set out to answer such questions. During the reopening of what’s called the “newly imagined” museum this coming weekend, the big brick edifice at 540 Water St. will reveal more spacious portals between rooms, accessible ramps, brighter lighting, opened-up spaces and new exhibits. 

Everything inside the museum is designed to be more welcoming, said Davy Mack-Hazelwood, the Jefferson County Historical Society’s development coordinator. The fresh displays and content, they added, may well surprise visitors—across the generations.

The whole journey of renovation—replacing decades-old exhibits with fresh ones, telling more stories about community members—has been a learning experience for the staff. 

“I have lived here a long time and I work in this field,” Mack-Hazelwood said, “and I have learned things.”  

After a three-month closure, the Art + History Museum has a theme for 2026: Home. As in what does it feel like? Who gets to make a home here in Jefferson County? Who are the various communities with roots here? 

Walking into the newly reconfigured front gallery, a visitor is surrounded by color—as in big, shimmering watercolor paintings by Martha Worthley, who has lived and worked in Port Townsend for 40-plus years. 

The artist’s flower garden, collection of vintage ceramics and textiles—and her beloveds, living and departed—all appear in the paintings. So do wild animals, hot peppers and lush flora. Worthley’s installation is titled “More Love,” and the love she has poured into her work is abloom here. 

“It’s really powerful,” Mack-Hazelwood said of the exhibit. 

In the galleries beyond the art, Jefferson County’s past and present unfold. There are displays about the Chemakum and Jamestown S’Klallam tribes, and about the Kawamotos, a pioneering family of farmers. Listening stations, including one with Chemakum elder Rosalee Walz, are part of these exhibits. 

For the first time, the Art + History Museum has a children’s zone. The alcove features a play space, displays about animals and their nests, and even opportunities to sniff and guess the scents of those creatures’ homes. 

“We have smell-a-vision,” Mack-Hazelwood said, noting the museum is free for young people ages 17 and under. 

Other displays go into the historical and current issues of housing in Jefferson County; of living off the grid and of Victorian mansions such as the Starrett House, now owned by Bayside Housing & Services. Then there’s the Town Tavern exhibit. 

The well-worn downtown spot was a place for revelry, rock’n’roll, and young people traveling through, said Ann Welch, Jefferson County Historical Society board president. 

Welch herself did a lot of dancing at the Town Tavern, and remembers nights during the 1970s with “150 of your most intimate friends.”  

“In many ways, it was a safe haven,” she said. Yet there was a dark side. 

The tavern’s demise came after a fire, “and a lot of drugs. And the drugs got harder,” Welch remembered. 

Moving downstairs into the museum’s Historic Jail rooms, an exhibit delves into how vagrants had trouble finding home in Jefferson County. From the late 1800s well into the 20th century, many were arrested and incarcerated here. The artifacts, narrative and images together help the visitor sense what it was like to be homeless. 

“For me, it’s empathy-building. It’s very humanizing,” said Mack-Hazelwood. 

Near the museum exit is another art display: drawings and 3-D printouts depicting homes of the future. Children in south Jefferson County were invited to imagine and design these artworks, especially for this exhibit, said programs manager Kelsey Caudebec. 

“This project was so stinkin’ fun. We got a hundred drawings, and they were all so good,” she said.  

The museum staff had to select just 20 to fit into the display. The picks include an extraordinary houseboat, a floating building, a UFO and a rooftop hot dog. Drawings that received honorable mentions will be posted on the museum website, Caudebec said. 

“This is a nice palate cleanser,” she said, after some of the more serious fare. 

This weekend at the Art + History Museum, the hours are 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday for a member and donor preview; then comes the public grand opening with special activities and free admission from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, and free family day with a spring scavenger hunt from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, which happens to be Easter.  

Museum admission is also free every first Saturday of the month. During the rest of the year, particular groups get in free: Jefferson County Historical Society members, EBT/SNAP benefit card holders, and kindergarten through 12th grade teachers in Jefferson County. Those interested in visiting can also borrow a free guest pass from the Jefferson County Library and Port Townsend Library.  Otherwise, Art + History Museum admission is $12 for adults, $9 for seniors 65 and older and military. 

For more information about the Art + History Museum as well as the Jefferson County Historical Society’s Research Center and Rothschild House Museum, see jchsmuseum.org.