Purdy’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold just one old photo of Purdy. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Prior to white settlement, the area was inhabited by Native Americans, who fished and clammed on Henderson Bay.
In 1884, one Isaac Hawk sold 19 acres (77,000 m2) of land for $23.75 (equivalent to $851 in 2025). The purchaser was logger and Civil War veteran Horace Knapp (born March 23, 1845, in Titusville, Pennsylvania; died February 1, 1913, in Gig Harbor, Washington), who subdivided the land into lots and blocks to form the town of Purdy. The town's naming rights were taken by Joseph W. Purdy, a grocer from Tacoma, Washington, who had donated the materials to construct the community's first schoolhouse; the schoolhouse's land was donated by Knapp.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Start Purdy’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Purdy’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🗓️Date a photo1 archive item has no date+2 🔁Retake an old viewPurdy Bridge, Spans strait betwee…: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Purdy, decade by decade
2000
unknown1 item
1 historic place in Purdy
1 place in Purdy is on the National Register of Historic Places, the country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Purdy Bridge, Spans strait between Henderson Bay & Burley Lagoon and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (3) and the Library of Congress (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.