Letters to the Editor
Letter to the Editor | So that’s why they call it Clay Hill
It’s always a gift to have grown up in Gig Harbor—and an even greater gift to keep learning new things about the town. Greg Spadoni’s article about the Gig Harbor Clay Company finally explained something that puzzled me for years: why the steep, perpetually wet hill in our neighborhood was always called “Clay Hill.”
When I was growing up, everyone knew that stretch of Harborview Drive as the place where traffic slows and funnels into a single narrow passage. Even then, people worried about the hillside’s instability. More than once I heard locals predict it would eventually slide into the bay. If that road is blocked today, getting from downtown to the north side means crossing Highway 16 and driving six miles just to travel the distance of a single block. As a former city council member, I even advocated for a bypass road around Clay Hill — if for no other reason than to help diffuse traffic flow through the city.
Long before houses crowned the ridge for their spectacular views of the bay, Clay Hill was covered in old-growth maples. It was one of those magical wooded places where we kids wandered, searching for trilliums, mushrooms, and berries. I remember that the Skansi family (cousins of those who owned and lived at Skansie Park—note the spelling) owned the property back then and were among the first to build homes on it.
There are other intriguing connections as well. The Gilich family—fishermen descended from John Novak—repurposed lumber from the Clay Company building. And it so happens that my grandfather bought a small piece of beach property from John Novak, who, along with Dorotich, helped create the neighborhood known as Millville.
Taken together, these overlapping threads—industry, families, land, and memory—add yet another layer to how I understand Clay Hill. What once felt like just a childhood landmark now feels like a crossroads of Gig Harbor’s natural, industrial, and personal history.
Many thanks to Greg Spadoni for such a fine and illuminating article, and for continuing to uncover the stories that deepen our understanding of this remarkable place.
Kenneth Malich
Gig Harbor