Town Square, Port Orchard, WA

 A relic of retail

Just a quick and scenic ferry ride across the Puget Sound from Seattle is Kitsap County.  Located on the Olympic Peninsula, the locality serves as a suburb of the Emerald City and even has its own enclosed shopping center with Kitsap Mall, which I thought was surely the only game in town.  But across Sinclair Inlet in the smaller town of Port Orchard is another mall- Town Center of Port Orchard.

Inside Town Square.

Though the two are not really comparable, Town Square is much more of a fit for the smaller hamlet.  Built as a two-level community center, I would hazard to say that the sparse interior had never seen a redesign before my initial visit in 2015. Larger tenants included Ace Hardware and Goodwill, but the main concourse was home to a rather robust selection of locally owned merchants.

The interior of Town Square.

Opened in 1981 as South Kitsap Mall, as far as I can find, the diminutive complex was never host to any traditional department store anchors.  Built as a family endeavor, the mall was sold in 2005 and then received its present name.

Town Square pamphlet ca. 2019. View the full PDF version here.

Since my last visit, Town Square Port Orchard was purchased by a national firm in 2021 who have embarked on a much-needed update.  The façade is being reimagined from its eclectic past to what I’m sure is a bland future, but at least there are no plans to close the interior portion all together.

The exterior of Town Square.

Town Square Port Orchard official website