Saving the Eddon Boatyard
Waterfront boatyards are an endangered species. Small boatyards that were once the economic engines for Gig Harbor and many coastal communities are being torn down only to be replaced by upscale marinas, condominiums and luxury homes. These unique family-owned properties that cultivate craftsmen and harbor age-old traditions have become the disposable relics and the economic casualties of out time. Locally, this trend is fast undoing more than a century of Northwest living history and cultural maritime heritage.

In 2004, 62 percent of Gig Harbor residents voted "yes" to a $3.2 million bond to purchase the Eddon Boatyard site for heritage programming and a recreational park. This historic property is the centerpiece of a unique maritime heritage landscape with fishing family properties that lie to the north and south.

Gig Harbor BoatShop
Core members of "Friends of Eddon Boatyard," the grassroots group that spearheaded the campaign to save the Eddon Boatyard, formed the Gig Harbor BoatShop in 2005.   more->

The Gig Harbor BoatShop (GHB) is a local not-for-profit organization created to preserve, interpret and perpetuate Gig Harbor's working waterfront. GHB recognizes the contribution that working waterfront families have made, and continue to make, to both Gig Harbor's and Washington state's diverse social, economic, political and cultural history.   more->

In 2005, GHB partnered with the City of Gig Harbor to facilitate the Eddon Boatyard Restoration Project. As a result, in 2006 a Washington State Heritage Grant for $1 million was awarded the city to begin work in 2007.   more->