Johnson Farm
A preserved 1896 homestead, a living museum, and a public park you can wander dawn to dusk - the heart of the island's history.
A farm that became the island's memory.
Finnish immigrants John and Alma Marie Johnson built their first cabin here in 1896, paying for the land by cutting cordwood for the steamers that worked the Sound. Their family raised chickens and dairy cattle on it until the early 1970s.
When the last of the Johnsons passed, the family donated the farm to the newly formed Anderson Island Historical Society to keep as a museum. Fifty years on, volunteers have restored most of the original fourteen buildings, and the grounds are open as a public park - free to wander, dawn to dusk.
Fourteen buildings, one working past.
The farm is a real one, preserved rather than rebuilt. The 1912 farmhouse, the 1917 pole barn (on the State Heritage Barn Register), the water tower and milk room, the egg room, and two enormous 1920s chicken coops that once held thousands of laying hens - all still standing, with the tools and machinery that ran them.
A Historical Society docent will happily walk you through the farmhouse and answer questions. Inside the barn and sheds you'll find a 1923 Model T, antique tractors, a hay baler, and the pilot house off the old Tahoma ferry that served the island from 1939 to 1967.
More than a museum.
The farm is a place to spend an afternoon, not just tour. Three things beyond the buildings are worth your time.
Community Gardens
The Society keeps roughly forty community garden plots on the farm, with a weekly garden market through the summer. They're a genuinely lovely thing to stroll through, set among the orchard and the old farm buildings.
The Nature Trail
A short, quarter-mile loop runs from the farmyard down past the pond - the same pond whose ram pump once pushed water up to the tower. An easy, pretty walk through the woods, with a beaver pond along the way.
The Gift Shop
Tucked into Chicken Coop #1: jams, teas, candy, books new and used, pottery, glassware, antiques, jewelry, kids' toys, and a year-round Christmas Corner. A genuinely good browse, not a rack of postcards.
A quarter mile through the woods.
The nature trail starts near the back gardens and loops down through the trees to the pond and back - about a quarter mile each way, mostly flat. It connects through to Jane Cammon Park if you want to keep walking; the trailhead sign maps the whole route.
It's an easy add-on to a farm visit, and a good one for kids: a beaver pond, big second-growth firs, and the quiet that the rest of the island specializes in.
When to come.
The farm grounds are a public park, open dawn to dusk, year-round, free to wander. The nature trail and gardens are always open.
Open weekends, roughly April through December - Saturdays 10am-4pm, Sundays 12-4pm. The museum buildings are open when docents are on hand, mostly summer weekends.
9306 Otso Point Road. Call 253-884-2135 for the gift shop or a tour by request. Volunteers are usually about on Wednesday mornings.
The farm is the island's gathering place.
Some of the island's best-loved events happen here, hosted by the Historical Society. If you can time a visit to one, do.
- Farm Day Saturday of Memorial Day weekend
- Salmon & Rib Bake the Saturday nearest July 4th
- Apple Squeeze cider-pressing in the fall
- Holiday Open House first Sunday of December
More things to do.
Parks & Trails
Nearly 500 acres of parkland - forest trails, public beaches, and a salmon stream you can walk along.
Read MoreIsland History
How a handful of Scandinavian homesteads and a brickyard became the island you see today.
Read MoreThings to Do Overview
The full rundown of what's here - parks, lakes, golf, paddling, and the museum.
Read More