Coupeville Wharf
Status: Most Endangered Places
Year Listed: 2024
Location: Coupeville, Island County
Built in 1905 for passenger travel and importing/exporting products between Whidbey Island and the mainland, over the decades the wharf became Coupeville’s most iconic building. It is currently owned by the Port of Coupeville and part of Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve, and its biggest threat today is climate change. As a 120-year-old wooden structure situated directly over the water, the wharf is affected by rising sea levels and increasingly frequent king tides. According to local government projections, the wharf will be flooded by the year 2050. The Port of Coupeville hopes to save the structure by raising it—a project that will cost $5 million. The Washington Trust has named the Coupeville Wharf to the list of Most Endangered Places to support the Port of Coupeville in finding funding and to draw attention to the perils to our state’s historic resources posed by climate change.