The Orcas Island Historical Society’s first museum consisted of artifacts displayed on the front porch of a pioneer family’s home. Property for a permanent museum site was eventually obtained in the village of Eastsound, a location the facility continues to occupy today.
In the 1950s and 1960s, various island families donated six original homestead cabins built during the 1870s and the 1890s to the Society. Volunteers disassembled the structures at their original sites, then moved, reconstructed and linked the structures together to create the main museum facility. These cabins are now over a hundred years old, and not only house the collections, but are considered important historical artifacts in themselves. Each cabin serves as a space for interpreting specific aspects of island history as told through the life stories and material culture of the Native American and early European-American settlers of this area.
The Orcas Island Historical Museum is unique in being the only object-based, interpretive heritage facility for the island, with a permanent collection comprised of approximately 6000 objects, paper documents and photographs.
