Experience

Current Exhibits

Trees have always played a central role in the life and culture of Island residents, from the Suquamish people to immigrant homesteaders to residents today.

The exhibit features large-scale photographs of Island heritage and champion trees. Local photographer Joel Sackett captures their majesty, fragility, and human connection.

Bainbridge Island is a vibrant city enlivened by many smaller communities of people who live, work, and play here.

What is special about Bainbridge Island communities? Explore this exhibit to find out.

African American

Living Live Leadership Group

Winslow Shipyard 1944

Sing Out Choir

African Americans have lived on Bainbridge Island since the 19th century. African American men provided labor for the local timber and shipbuilding industries at the turn of the 20th century. Others served in the military.

African Americans make up only 1% of the Island population. Many factors influence the lack of a larger community, including racism, acts of violence, and prejudice.

Despite challenges, African Americans who live and work on the Island today contribute to the Island’s economy and culture while they spearhead changes for a more inclusive and equitable community.

Business

Lynwood Center 1950

Town & Country 1957

Hall Brothers Shipyard

For thousands of years, the Puget Sound region was the center of trade for the Suquamish and other Coast Salish tribes. Beginning in the late 1800s, the timber industry transformed the Island landscape, followed by a strong agricultural economy into the first half of the 1900s.

Retail, hospitality, and recreational companies have flourished and supported the growth of residents and vacationers. Business owners from across the nation and around the globe have established iconic and world-famous brands in manufacturing, transportation, culinary, and other industries on the Island.

Faith

Grace Church

St. Cecilia Catholic Church

First Church of Christ, Scientist

The growth of faith communities on Bainbridge Island reflects a changing population and robust interfaith cooperation.

Homesteaders built the first churches in the late 1900s. As the population of the Island increased, more congregations were established to meet the needs of the community.

By the late 20th century, the faith landscape became more diverse with the establishment of a Buddhist temple, two Jewish congregations, and traditions like Baha’i, Soka Gakkai International, Universal Dances of Peace and Unity.

Today, faith groups continue to be a vibrant and active part of the greater community.

Filipino American

Ross Berganio at Naket Cannery

Filipino American Community Hall

Strawberry Court

When the Philippines became a US Territory in 1898, many Filipinos came searching for jobs and educational opportunities. The first known Filipino in Washington Territory worked at the Port Blakely Mill on Bainbridge Island.

In the early 1900s, Filipino men worked as pickers and field bosses for local Japanese American farmers. They organized a Filipino Grower’ Association, bought Island farms and businesses, and purchased property to establish a Filipino American Community Hall, which is still a gathering place for meetings and celebrations.

Today, a vibrant Filipino American community contributes to the culture and economy of the Island.

Food

Wester Farm 1916

Digging for clams

Bainbridge Island Cannery

Forestry

Steam Donkey

Horse Team 1890

Hansen Family

Island forests changed dramatically in the 1800s when entrepreneurs opened large sawmills, harvesting lumber to build ships, towns, and the Northern Pacific Railroad.

By the 1930s, most of the Island’s pre-settlement forests were cut down. Some forests grew back; others were converted to farmland.

In recent decades, Island citizens, organizations, and businesses have explored different ways to harvest trees and preserve a healthy forest community.

Indipino

Corpuz home

Honor Thy Mother Pow Wow

The Indipino Community of Bainbridge Island began when 36 Indigenous women from 19 different tribes in Canada, Alaska, and Washington State migrated here to pick berries for Japanese American farmers in the 1930s-1940s.

The women married young Filipino immigrants, worked alongside their husbands in the fields, and raised their Indipino children. The Filipino dialect, Ilocano, was primarily spoken in social gatherings. Filipino culture and traditions played a central role in family life.

Their mother’s Indigenous way of life, language, culture, and traditions were seldom practiced. In the 1980s, adult Indipinos began to embrace their mixed heritage and identify by their mother’s tribal affiliation.

Japanese American

Yama Village

Japanese American Islanders 1942

Sakai Intermediate School Groundbreaking

The first Japanese men arrived on Bainbridge Island in about 1883 to work at the Port Blakely Mill. With stable jobs, they soon brought wives from Japan and established a robust Japanese American community.

With the decline of the logging industry in the early 1900s, many families took up farming and built a robust agricultural economy. Others started businesses.

With the onset of WWII, the US Government forced all Islanders of Japanese American descent to leave the Island and transported them to concentration camps. After the war, many returned to Bainbridge Island to rebuild their lives.

Today, the Japanese American community is integral to the Island’s culture and economy.

Maritime Transportation

Reuce of Richmond 1903

Steamer Florence K

The Norwood at Fletcher’s Landing Pier

Boats have always been an integral part of life on Bainbridge Island.

Prior to the 1870s and even today, people travel to and from Bainbridge Island in small, privately owned canoes, sailboats, rowboats, and other seaworthy vessels.

In the late 1800s, large sailing ships transported people and goods in and out of the Island’s busy harbors. By the early 1900s, a network of steamships made regular stops at docks around the Island.

Since 1923, auto ferries have been providing regular service from Seattle to Bainbridge Island – first to Port Blakely and then to the current Eagle Harbor dock since 1937. Today, it’s one of the busiest ferry routes in the country.

Military

Battle Point Transmitter Station

Navy “Station S” Annex

Waves at Fort Ward

Bainbridge Island has a storied military history. The US Army Coast Artillery Corps built Fort Ward between 1900-1903. The Fort protected the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton until it was deactivated and put on caretaker status in the 1920s.

With tensions rising overseas in 1938, the US Navy reactivated the Fort as a radio school and top-secret listening post, known as “Station S,” which helped win the war in the Pacific. The base closed in 1958. The US Army also operated a missile site elsewhere on the Island in the 1950s.

Today, Bainbridge Island has no active bases, but it is home to a devoted veteran community and historic landmarks.

Pickleball

Barney McCallum 1965

Bainbridge Island Founders Tournament 2021

Original Court on Bainbridge Island

Pickleball was invented on Bainbridge Island in the summer of 1965. Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, Barney McCallum, and their families spent summers on Pleasant Beach at the south end of the Island.

When their children complained of boredom, Pritchard proposed they invent a new game using materials readily available, including a badminton net and court, ping pong paddles, and a Whiffle ball. For several months, the 3 friends debated and experimented with different rules and equipment. From the beginning, they set out to establish rules to accommodate players of all ages and abilities.

Hear the story from Barney McCallum:

How did Pickleball get it’s name? Hear the story from Joel Pritchard’s son, Frank:

Pride

Seabold United Methodist Church

Bainbridge High School Sexuality and Gender Alliance

Bainbridge Island Pride Festival 2019

Gay couples have always lived on Bainbridge Island. There are lesbian and gay couples raising families. There are transgender people. Just because we don’t have historic records about the LGBTQ+ community, doesn’t mean they haven’t always been here.

In the past and even today, making a public statement about a same-sex relationship is scary, dangerous, and historically illegal.

Prior to 2019, there was no Island organization to unite and support the LGBTQ+ community until Bainbridge Pride became an official nonprofit.

Suquamish

Duck Catching Net

Suquamish Village

Basket Weaver “Tennesee”

Bainbridge Island is a primary part of the ancestral heartland of the Suquamish Tribe, whose ancestors first occupied the post-glacial landscape of Western Washington at least 14,000 years ago.

The Suquamish name derives from the beach in front of the mother village of Old Man House on Agate Passage: dxʷsəq’ʷəb, the place of the clear salt water in the Lushootseed language. The people of Suquamish or clear salt water were suq’ʷabš, which early English traders heard as Suquamish.

Not many of the Suquamish live on Bainbridge today, as the land was ceded in the Point Elliot Treaty of 1855. The Tribe continues to harvest their traditional foods in the area, while using their treaty fishing rights to protect the waters of Puget Sound for all citizens.