Rothschild House (Port Townsend, Washington)

The Rothschild House is a house in Port Townsend, Washington. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.[1] It is included in Port Townsend Historic District which was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977.[2][3] It was built by D. C. H. Rothschild.

Rothschild House
LocationTaylor and Franklin Sts., Port Townsend, Washington
Coordinates48°6′58″N 122°45′23″W
Built1868
NRHP reference No.70000639
Added to NRHPSeptember 29, 1970[1]

The house is managed by the Jefferson County Historical Society as a historic house museum.

The life of D. C. H. Rothschild

Early business ventures

David Charles Henry Rothschild (1824-1885) was one of seven siblings from Sulzbach am Main, Bavaria. He came to the United States in the mid 1840s. His brother, William, nearly 15 years older, had preceded him to America and settled in Harrodsburg, Kentucky where he had an establishment called "The Kentucky Store". He joined his brother in this venture but, in 1848, he returned to Sulzbach for three months, then returned to America by way of Cape Horn, to San Francisco. There, he served as secretary of the Phoenix Quartz Mining Company and worked for both the Tehama Quartz Mining Company and the North California Mining Company. Later, he and a partner opened a store in Nevada City but sold out the following year, going first to New York and then back to Bavaria. A year later, he was back in Nevada City, and opened another store.

Travels

After operating his latest store for a year, he decided to travel to "exotic" places for the next three years, visiting China, the East Indies, Australia, Tahiti, and the Society Islands. He returned to San Francisco to be a miner for six months, then opened a tobacco and cigar store in Sacramento. It was there that he married. He chose to raise his family in Port Townsend, where he settled with his wife Dorette (also from Bavaria). Over time, he came to be known as "The Baron"; a reference to the famous Rothschild banking family.[4]

Rothschild & Co.

In 1858, shortly after settling in Port Townsend, he established a new "Kentucky Store" which, in addition to being a regular mercantile store, provisioned ships and did some salvage operations. By 1881, shipping had become his primary focus and the business became "Rothschild & Company". His son Henry later took over the business and, in conjunction with his partner William J. Jones, expanded into stevedoring. That enterprise, now known as "Jones Stevedoring" is still in operation and is based at the Port of Seattle.[5]

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. "Port Townsend". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2008-04-14. Retrieved 2008-06-25.
  3. Carolyn Pitts (1977-02-18). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Port Townsend Historic District" (pdf). National Park Service. Cite journal requires |journal= (help) and Accompanying 37 photos, from 1965 and 1975 (includes a 1965 photo of the Rothschild House) (32 KB)
  4. Karen Brown's World of Travel
  5. Jones Stevedoring: History
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