Downtown Decline and the Long Return

The story of Bremerton's downtown in the second half of the twentieth century is the story of Edward Bremer, the founder's son.

William Bremer had built his fortune by giving the Navy a good deal and watching the city grow up around the commercial properties he retained. His son Edward inherited those holdings, which by mid-century amounted to a significant portion of Bremerton's commercial core. What Edward chose to do with them, over the following decades, was largely nothing.

The postwar decline was not entirely Edward's doing. The Naval shipyard contracted after the war. The Kitsap Mall opened in the suburb of Silverdale in nineteen eighty-five, drawing Sears, J.C. Penney, Nordstrom, and other major retailers away from downtown. The city council declared downtown a blighted area in nineteen seventy-eight. The Bangor Ammunition Depot, selected for expansion in nineteen seventy-three, shifted growth northward along the peninsula and away from Bremerton proper.

But Edward Bremer's neglect of his inherited properties accelerated the slide. When he died in nineteen eighty-seven, his holdings passed to Olympic College's trust, leaving much of downtown in a complicated legal and physical state: owned but not invested in, present but not functional.

The recovery has been slow. A waterfront boardwalk and marina began development in nineteen ninety-two. The Bremerton Transportation Center opened in two thousand. A hotel and conference complex followed in two thousand four, along with the Norm Dicks Government Center. Harborside Fountain Park opened in two thousand seven. Some condominium projects stalled in the financial crisis. The revitalization that began in the nineties is real, but it has been uneven, and Bremerton continues to live with the consequences of the decades that came before.