Port Blakely, which came to life in 1863, is a scattered community on the north shore of Blakely Harbor, on southeast Bainbridge Island. It was once an active sawmilling town which, for a time, boasted the largest sawmill in the world. It was named for Blakely Harbor by Cmdr. Charles Wilkes for Capt. Johnson Blakeley, a U.S. naval hero of the War of 1812. Blakeley was lost at sea with...

A summer resort at the south end of the island, spread around a picturesque semicircular bay. In a brick block are stores and a rakish theater building, known today as Lynwood Center, and which has a new marquee. A previous name was Sylvan Grove, and it was first settled by Asa Fowler who had a land claim dated January 30, 1864.

A slender cove on the west shore of the island and running inland for a half-mile, with an average width of a few hundred feet. Along its banks were attractive homes and a dance pavilion provided a social center. The name was given for William C. Fletcher, who took a land claim on July 17, 1869. A local name was Greek George’s Bay. Up through 1930 a ferry used to...

The highway traverses a countryside once dotted with strawberry fields, mainly cultivated by Japanese who operate lands under lease. Bainbridge Gardens was, in 1941, one of the largest greenhouses on the island, from which many thousands of Easter lilies were shipped annually. It is still in operation and claims title as the oldest nursery and gardening business on the island.

Manzanita Bay and the small settlement of Manzanita was the center of summer homes and camps. The place was named by Margaret A. Wheeler, postmaster, who believed that madrone trees in this area were manzanitas. There might well have been manzanita trees there as well, as they were abundant near Chico, eight miles to the southwest.

This community was once a leading saw milling center but is now a residential area of country homes on a narrow arm of Port Madison bay on the north end of Bainbridge Island. It was named by the Wilkes Expedition in 1841 for President James Madison and stirred to life in 1853, when G. W. Meigs came from San Francisco and set up a sawmill. The great demand for lumber...

Along Lafayette Avenue is an Old British Cemetery, the burial place of several British sailors. Some of the headstones date back to 1854. The highway eventually turns south, paralleling the shore along a high bluff. Second-growth timber and scrubby woodland border the road.

Enter this park from the east side of the road. A maze of driftwood greets those seeking to reach the beach, where, on a clear day, stunning views of the Cascades inspire visitors. Camping and picnic facilities are available.

Sunrise Drive continues towards the midsection of the island, its most cultivated area, to a junction with Valley Road. Rolling Bay, a few hundred yards off the highway, is one of the oldest summer colonies on Bainbridge Island. This scattered neighborhood of beach homes and small farms sits on the northeast shore of Bainbridge Island. The first name was Falk’s Bay, for Dona Falk, who claimed land there in 1876....

Points of Interest

Skiff Point

Puget Sound Naval Academy

South of Skiff Point, Manitou Beach Drive follows around the shore of Murden Cove, where small roads branch inland. Murden Cove was once the proposed western terminus for a cross-sound bridge from West Point in Seattle to between Ferncliff and Manitou Beach, on the east shore of Bainbridge Island. In 1856, it was named by the U.S. Coast Survey for a beach dweller in the cove and appears on some...