Dockton is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

King County, Washington King County is located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population was 2,269,675 in the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Washington, and the 13th-most populous in the United States. The county seat is Seattle, also the ...

. It is located on

Maury Island Maury Island is a tied island in Puget Sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is connected to Vashon Island by an isthmus built by local homeowners in 1913. Before construction of the isthmus, the island was connected to Vashon only durin ...

, along Quartermaster Harbor. Although once an industrial center, Dockton today is a primarily residential area, with many commuters taking the ferry to nearby Tacoma.

History

Dockton, one of the first major settlements on the now-conjoined Vashon and Maury Islands, was an important shipbuilding center in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Puget Sound Dry Dock Company ship yard and drydock there from 1892 to 1909 was the largest on the

West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...

.Vashon Island History: Dockton
Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Museum. Accessed online 16 September 2009. The drydock was long and wide. After its closure, the Stucky and Martinolich yards continued shipbuilding and repair at Dockton. Over the years a number of vessels were also built at the shipyard of John Martinolich, at Dockton on Maury Island. These included the propeller steamers ''Vashon'' (1905), ''Verona'' (1910), ''Nisqually'' (later renamed ''Astorian'') and ''Calista'', both built in 1911, '' Florence J.'' (1914), '' F.G. Reeves'', (1916), ''Vashona'' (later renamed ''Sightseer'') (1921), and the ferry ''Whidby'' (1923). Launchings did not always go well. ''Florence J''. rolled over and sank on the first launching attempt. The last commercial boat built at Dockton was the ''Janet G'' in 1929. In the early 1910s there was a salmon

cannery Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container ( jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although ...

at Dockton,

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

fisheries peaked in 1914, but after that catches began to decline, and the cannery was closed by the end of the decade. Dockton gradually transformed into the residential community it is today. As Dockton faded as an industrial center, its situation as a residential center was improved when King County bridged the portage between Maury Island and larger Vashon Island in 1918. The two islands were later connected by an artificial

isthmus An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmus ...

. The Dockton Store, including a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

, opened in 1920. It was the center of the community until it closed in the 1980s. The building remains, and is listed as a King County landmark. It is the only well preserved early 20th century commercial building on Maury Island.Heather MacIntosh
King County Landmarks: Dockton General Store and Post Office (1908, 1922), Dockton, Maury Island
HistoryLink; date reads January 01, 1900, so effectively undated. Accessed online 16 September 2009. Other surviving remnants of Dockton's past are shipyard pilings, old piers and net houses, and the homes of the managers and foremen from the industrial days, known collectively as "Piano Row".

Notes

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in King County, Washington Unincorporated communities in Washington (state)