6 Pacific Coast Towns With Unforgettable Main Streets
The six Pacific Coast towns below all sit within walking distance of either the ocean or a major working harbor, and each one packs a century-old theater, a maritime museum, and a few independent restaurants into a couple of walkable blocks. Astoria, Oregon, was founded in 1811 as the first permanent American settlement west of the Rockies and runs an 1886 Victorian mansion at the head of its main street. Port Townsend's downtown is a near-intact gold-rush-era streetscape with a 143-foot Romanesque clock tower still ringing the hour. Friday Harbor sits on San Juan Island and runs a downtown a one-minute walk from the ferry dock. Carmel-by-the-Sea has no traffic lights downtown. The six below cover the Pacific main-street range from Washington State down to the Monterey Peninsula.
Astoria, Oregon
About 96 miles northwest of Portland, Astoria was founded in 1811 by representatives of John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company on the traditional homeland of the Clatsop and Chinook peoples. It was the first permanent American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. Much of that layered history is on display around Commercial Street, the main drag through the city's Downtown Historic District, which runs parallel to the Columbia River. The Liberty Theatre, a Venetian-inspired vaudeville house built in 1925, now hosts concerts and live events. Around the corner, the Captain George Flavel House Museum, completed in 1886 in the Queen Anne Victorian style, holds carved-oak staircases, stained glass, and the interior detailing of Astoria's late-19th-century boom years.
From the Flavel House, the walk continues east toward the waterfront and the Columbia River Maritime Museum. The museum runs exhibits on Astoria's seafaring past and explains why the Columbia River Bar earned the nickname "Graveyard of the Pacific" (more than 2,000 vessels and 700 lives lost over two centuries). Exhibits include a full-size Coast Guard surfboat, a piloting simulator, and the stories of the bar pilots and rescue crews who work these waters.
To stay close to downtown, Hotel Elliott runs Commercial Street rooms with a rooftop terrace overlooking the city and the Columbia. The Cannery Pier Hotel & Spa is a short drive from the historic center but sits on a 600-foot dock where fishing boats once moored.
Port Townsend, Washington
Port Townsend's downtown was built in the 1880s and 1890s when the town was angling to become the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad (the railroad ultimately chose Tacoma instead, leaving Port Townsend with an unusually intact Gold-rush-era Victorian downtown). Red-brick buildings and waterfront views run the length of Water Street and make the strip easy to cover on foot. The main street points toward Admiralty Inlet and sits close to Haller Fountain Park, where the Galatea statue has stood since 1906. Nearby, the Rose Theatre, built in 1907, still draws moviegoers, while the Romanesque-Revival Jefferson County Courthouse rises a few blocks away with a 143-foot clock tower that still rings hourly.
Port Townsend works year-round, but the Wooden Boat Festival each September is the marquee event, with historic vessels, boatbuilders, and waterfront events at Northwest Maritime and Point Hudson Marina. For a stay with character, the Palace Hotel is an 1889 building on the main drag with claw-foot tubs and brass bedsteads.
Mendocino, California
Down in California, Mendocino sits on a marine terrace above the Pacific. The downtown reads like a 19th-century New England village, the look its lumber-baron founders built in the 1850s and 1860s. A handful of wooden water towers still rise above town, a vestige of the more than 100 that once stored water for the redwood lumber operations. On Main Street, the Ford House Museum, built in 1854, runs exhibits on shipwrecks, sawmills, and local history, and serves as the town's Visitor Center.
A short walk from Main Street brings you to the Kelley House Museum, an 1861 historic home and research center on an acre of gardens overlooking Mendocino Bay. For fresh air, head west on Main Street for a walk along Portuguese Beach and the Mendocino Headlands. The redwood "Time and the Maiden" sculpture sits atop the historic Masonic Hall facing the headlands. Sweetwater Inn and Spa, on the eastern end of Main Street, runs a base within walking distance of most of downtown.
Friday Harbor, Washington
Reached year-round by Washington State Ferries from Anacortes (about an hour each way), Friday Harbor sits on San Juan Island and runs at island pace. Step off the ferry and Spring Street is a minute away, with shops selling sea-glass jewelry, local art, and island-made finds. The century-old Palace Theatre runs first-run films, and a block uphill, the San Juan Islands Museum of Art runs rotating exhibits on the landscapes, wildlife, and communities of the Salish Sea.
The Whale Museum, a few blocks from the ferry, runs exhibits on the Southern Resident orcas with live hydrophone audio and a full-size orca skeleton in its lighthouse-like tower. To look for whales in the wild, a local operator like San Juan Safaris runs whale-watching cruises and kayak tours. For a land-based option, drive about 10 minutes across the island to Lime Kiln Point State Park, one of the country's best shore-based whale-watching spots.
Friday Harbor House, on First Street around the corner from Spring Street, runs harbor-view rooms close to the ferry. Earthbox Inn & Spa on Spring Street is set in a 1960s motor lodge with complimentary beach-cruiser bikes for guests.
Cannon Beach, Oregon
Cannon Beach, about 80 miles west of Portland, is one of Oregon's classic coastal towns. Most of the activity centers on Hemlock Street, which runs parallel to the beach. Haystack Rock, the 235-foot sea stack that anchors the shoreline, hosts tufted puffins in spring (one of the few accessible mainland sites in Oregon to see them). The June Sandcastle Contest fills the shoreline with elaborate sand sculptures.
At the north end of Hemlock Street, the Coaster Theatre Playhouse occupies a former 1920s roller rink. Farther south, Icefire Glassworks runs glassmaking demonstrations. A block off the main strip, the Cannon Beach History Center & Museum runs exhibits on local shipwrecks, the cannon that gave Cannon Beach its name (washed ashore from the 1846 wreck of the schooner USS Shark), and a Native American longhouse replica.
Surfsand Resort sits between Hemlock Street and the beach. The adults-only Stephanie Inn looks toward Haystack Rock, with a multi-course dinner each evening.
Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
California's Carmel-by-the-Sea runs a Pacific Coast setting with a downtown to match. Ocean Avenue, the town's main street, has no traffic lights and runs inland from the beach past courtyards, galleries, boutiques, and the fairytale-style cottages designed by builder Hugh Comstock in the 1920s (about 20 of the original Comstock cottages survive in town). Carmel was incorporated in 1916 and has been governed since with unusual rules, including a long-running ban on house numbers (residents pick up mail at the post office).
Just south of the downtown core, the Sunset Cultural Center anchors the performing-arts scene and hosts the Carmel Bach Festival each July, the second-oldest Bach festival in the country. Farther south, Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (Carmel Mission) was founded in 1771 by JunÃpero Serra and is his final resting place. The 1797 stone church now anchors an active parish and museum complex. L'Auberge Carmel, a block from Ocean Avenue, runs a luxury boutique hotel with the acclaimed Aubergine restaurant on site.
The Final Word
The four things that make a Pacific Coast main street worth the drive show up across these six towns. Ocean views. Walkable downtowns. Historic buildings dating from the 1810s through the 1920s. A real sense of place that hasn't been worn down by chain-store creep. Park the car and you can fill a full day on shops, galleries, theaters, museums, and waterfront viewpoints. Drop any of these into a coastal itinerary for an easy taste of Washington State, Oregon, and California.
