Pierce County · Pop. 6,700

Steilacoom Real Estate — Washington's first town, still facing the water.

About Steilacoom

Steilacoom is where Washington began. Founded in 1851 by Maine sea captain Lafayette Balch and incorporated on April 22, 1854, it was the territory's first incorporated town and Pierce County's original seat, shipping lumber to San Francisco from a busy wharf. When the Northern Pacific chose Tacoma as its terminus in the 1870s, the boom moved on — and Steilacoom quietly kept its nineteenth-century bones. Preservation efforts beginning in the 1960s made it one of the state's first designated historic districts, with 68 contributing properties on the National Register. Today it is a ferry town of about 6,700, where Pierce County boats cross to Anderson and Ketron islands and BNSF freight trains skirt the beach. Buyers find Victorian-era cottages and view ramblers priced under University Place and Gig Harbor, in a small, well-regarded school district minutes from JBLM.

Living in Steilacoom

• Sunnyside Beach Park — 1,400 feet of saltwater shoreline with Narrows Bridge views
• Steilacoom Ferry Landing — Pierce County's car ferry to Anderson and Ketron islands
• Farrell's Marsh Park — wooded wetland preserve with looping walking trails
• Saltar's Point Beach Park — sandy swimming cove below the historic district
• Bair Drug & Hardware (1895) — working soda fountain inside the town's museum-store

Where the locals eat

• Topside Bar & Grill — American · Steilacoom waterfront
• The Bair Bistro — Breakfast & soda fountain · Historic district
• Steilacoom Pub & Grill — Pub fare · Downtown Steilacoom
• Chambers Bay Grill — Pacific Northwest · Chambers Bay-adjacent

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