PORT ORCHARD REAL ESTATE
Port Orchard: The first settlers in the area built homes on the wooded shores of Sinclair Inlet in 1854 and named their community Sidney. Sawmills and shipyards formed a sound base for the town's economy, and in 1903 Sidney was renamed Port Orchard and was made the seat of Kitsap County.Port Orchard is the county seat of Kitsap. But it was not always the county seat, nor was it always called Port Orchard. Originally called Sidney, Port Orchard was platted in 1886 by Frederick Stevens, who named it after his father Sidney. The Illinois inventor, Sidney M. Stevens came west from DeKalb, IL for a family visit to the Long Lake area. He liked what he saw so much that he paid $900 for 88 1/2 acres with the intention of creating a town.
The boundaries were similar to those today-Sinclair Inlet on the north, Mitchell Road on the east, South Street on the south and one block west of Short Street on the west. Early industry was primarily lumber and the loggers that frequented the nine saloons in town. The town of Sidney was incorporated September 15, 1890, and was the first in Kitsap County to be both platted and incorporated.
Shortly after Sidney was platted, the Navy Department was looking for a site for a second naval installation on the Pacific Coast. Sidney residents took an active role in influencing the commission of the Port Orchard Navy Yard (now Puget Sound Naval Shipyard). A.H. Sroufe was a prime mover locally. He and Thomas Cline established the first newspaper in the county in 1886, calling it The Kitsap County Pioneer. Sroufe devoted weeks to touring with the Navy Commission and his persistance paid off when the Navy located the base in Orchard Bay over such communities as Seattle, Tacoma, Port Townsend, Bellingham (called Whatcom then), and others.