Historical Photos courtesy Bainbridge Island Historical Society - used with permission.
Port Madison Water Company (PMWC) is a non-profit cooperative association that operates and maintains a water system and other assets for more than one hundred homes on the north end of Bainbridge Island, WA. Incorporated in 1929, PMWC originally provided water primarily for summer homes located on or near land that had been owned by Port Madison Mill. Over the last 90 years, many more homes – most permanent residences – have been built. However, Port Madison Water Company remains a distinctive neighborhood that reflects its maritime and timber history.
Owners of homes served by PMWC acquire shares of stock in the company; and an elected volunteer Board of Trustees manages the water infrastructure as well as forest lands, a beach and dock. Bi- monthly payments by households provide PMWC’s primary source of income, which is allocated to operating expenses and to reserves for future capital improvements (see separate “PMWC rates & fees”). Currently, PMWC contracts with NW Water Systems to operate the water delivery infrastructure, including compliance with Washington water quality requirements. PMWC shareholder- volunteers work to maintain the waterfront and forest.
History
About
The Port Madison Water Company has its roots in the former town of Port Madison, original seat of Kitsap County and site of one of the first large sawmills in western Washington.
According to various sources, the native name of Port Madison bay was either Tu-che-kup or Noo-sohk-um. On Nov. 8, 1824, John Work of the Hudson's Bay Company, while looking for potential sites for a trading post, recorded it as Soquamis Bay - a variation on the name of the Suquamish tribe which made its home on the western shore. The Wilkes Expedition surveyed the bay on May 10, 1841 and named it for James Madison, the 4th president of the United States.
George A. Meigs built a lumber mill on the Bainbridge Island shore of the bay in 1854, and Port Madison was soon a booming mill town. The town of Port Madison became Kitsap County's first county seat, but after the economic depression of the 1890s closed the mill, the seat was relocated and Port Madison became a ghost town. Today, Port Madison is a residential area and a popular destination for boaters.