Old Portage Store

After American settlement of Vashon, the Portage Store became the center of a vibrant community with a Ford automobile dealership (the first auto dealership on Vashon), a post office, a hotel, an Episcopal church, and the first automobile ferry from Vashon to the mainland. Today, the store sits closed with residents on the upper floor and in the connected residence to the west.

In 1903, C.F. VanOlinda built the first store at Portage and later that year opened the Portage post office as its first postmaster. The store offered the first rural free delivery on the Island beginning in 1905, and remained a post office until July 12, 1968, when it was decommissioned