Qualla: Ferry House (Ebey's Landing)

Ferry House (Ebey's Landing): Introduction

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Morfarrickard, CC BY-SA 4.0. The wood came from a dead man's house. In 1860, Winfield Scott Ebey built an inn on the bluffs above Admiralty Inlet using salvaged lumber from the cabins of his brother Isaac, who had been killed three years earlier. Isaac Neff Ebey, a prominent settler and the first customs collector of Puget Sound, was assassinated in 1857 by northern Indigenous raiders, likely Kake Tlingit from Alaska, who took his head. His orphaned children needed income, and Winfield needed building material. The cabins across the ravine, abandoned since the murder, provided both purpose and planks. The Ebey Inn, as it was first called, became a post office, a tavern, a general store, and an overnight stop for travelers crossing Admiralty Inlet from Port Townsend.

Image: Morfarrickard | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ferry House (Ebey's Landing): A Builder's Grief

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wafwot, CC BY 3.0. Winfield Ebey chose a site on the western shore of Whidbey Island, directly across Admiralty Inlet from Port Townsend, where ferry traffic was constant and travelers had nowhere else to stay. He dismantled his brother's cabins, which had stood on the opposite side of the ravine b...

Image: Wafwot | CC BY 3.0

Ferry House (Ebey's Landing): The Inlet Crossing

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Morfarrickard, CC BY-SA 4.0. The inn's location was its business model. Port Townsend, directly across Admiralty Inlet, was the official port of entry for all of Puget Sound, and every vessel moving through the region stopped there. Travelers heading north to Coupeville, Whidbey Island, La Conner, and points...

Image: Morfarrickard | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ferry House (Ebey's Landing): No Plumbing, No Electricity, No Compromise

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wafwot, CC BY 3.0. The Ferry House has never been modernized. There is no indoor plumbing. There is no electricity. The building stands today almost exactly as it was constructed in 1860, making it one of the most authentic surviving pioneer structures in Washington State. A lightning strike in 191...

Image: Wafwot | CC BY 3.0

Ferry House (Ebey's Landing): Time Capsule in the Reserve

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rspang, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Ferry House is now owned by the National Park Service as part of Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve, a 17,500-acre protected landscape established in 1978 to preserve the rural working community of central Whidbey Island. The reserve contains more than 400 historic bu...

Image: Rspang | CC BY-SA 4.0