For nearly 125 years, Aldrich’s Market in Uptown has changed hands only five times – through five families, unrelated by birth. That is, up until now. The Market has survived economies of the times and two world wars, and has risen like a Phoenix from the ashes of two fires. It’s the oldest grocery store in Washington state still operating under the same trade name.
Clark Aldrich hung out his sign in 1896, and since then, the store’s location has moved several times. Aldrich’s has been both a physical as well as symbolic cultural center for the both the neighborhood community and the town in general. Enter siblings Yos, Rachel, and Christina Ligtenberg! Yes, yet another family – and one with a deep understanding of the Port Townsend community. They’ve appeared, serendipitously, right at a time when Aldrich’s – like a family cat – was about to lose another one of its lives.
