PORT TOWNSEND — Dorette Rothschild Lemon, 91, remembers visiting her grandparents in Port Townsend when she was a child living in Seattle.
Last week, she returned for another visit to see the house now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Lemon arrived Friday from Corvallis, Ore., to share a picnic on the house’s lawn and chat with the staff of what is now the Roths- child House museum, a state park managed by the Jefferson County Historical Society.
It’s a trip that Lemon tries to make annually, but she was unable to do so in 2009, said Bill Tennent, executive director of the historical society.
“She met with the docents and told all sorts of stories,” Tennent said.
Waving red tablecloth
Lemon remembered family members waving a red tablecloth as friends sailed away from Port Townsend.
The red color could be seen from far away as it was waved from the house on the bluff at the corner of Franklin and Taylor streets, which overlooks Port Townsend Bay.
“They’d wave the cloth . . . until the people had gotten out of sight,” Tennent said.
The Rothschild House was opened to the public 1962 after Eugene Rothschild, Dorette Lemon’s father, donated it to the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission.
Henry Rothschild built the house in 1868 after the family had lived above his store for several years.
Born in Bavaria in 1824, he settled in Port Townsend in 1858 and opened the Kentucky Store, which later became the Rothschild and Co. Mercantile.
“The store was where Nifty Fiftys is now,” at 817 Water St., Tennent said.
After his death in 1886, Henry Rothschild’s widow, Dorette — for whom Dorette Lemon was named — lived in the house until she died in 1918, and her daughter lived there until her death in 1954.
Lemon never lived in the house. By the time she was born, her parents had moved to Seattle but she visited frequently.
The fact that house was occupied by only one family is reflected in its furnishings, Tennent said.
“As such, it is a surprisingly accurate reflection of our culture 100 years ago,” the historical society says on its website, www.jchs museum.org/.
“The children’s room looks like the children have just stepped out for a few minutes. The parlor waits for visiting callers. Outside, the roses of earlier generations still bloom; the herbs still rise in the springtime.”
Now, said Tennent, “descendents of the Rothschilds call us and ask if we want things for the house.”
1930s comics
One of the things Lemon brought with her for the house last week was a stack of comics pages from The Seattle Times, dated 1930 to 1933.
Lemon’s aunt, Amelia Rothschild, had kept the comics “so that children who came to her house could read them,” Tennent said.
The comics probably will become part of the permanent display, he added.
“She said they were kept in the living room beside a chair so that when children came in they would have something to read,” he said.
“Bringing the comics was quite nice of her,” Tennent added.
Lemon traveled from Corvalis with her daughter, Patricia Starker, Henry Rothschild’s great-granddaughter.
Lemon’s cousin, Clayton Jones of the Jones Stevedoring Co., of Seattle, also visited Friday, Tennent said.
No living person carries the surname of Rothschild. The family had daughters who married into other families.
“They are very proud of their ancestry,” Tennent said.
“They still have tremendous pride in the home, and they like to come back at least once a year.”
The house is open for tours from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily May through September. Admission is $4 for adults, $1 for children younger than 12.
For more information, see the historical society’s website, visit the historical society museum at 540 Water St. or phone 360-385-1003.
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
