Business Community

PenLight celebrates a century

Peninsula Light Co. marked its 100th anniversary Monday with a centennial celebration in the parking lot of the Harbor History Museum — the same site that was the headquarters of the local utility for more than 50 years.

The east portion of the current museum building, an adjacent warehouse and some abandoned concrete steps to nowhere are all parts of the site’s former Pen Light days.

PenLight celebrated its 100th anniversary on Monday, July 14, at the Harbor History Museum campus. Photo by Tonya Strickland

The outdoor party welcomed the public with free ice cream from the Gig Harbor Iscreamery trailer, soda and punch, a DJ, and family activities like electric bucket truck demonstrations, games, bubble machines and a booth where kids picked up Pen Light-branded green plastic toy hard hats.

To mark the occasion, the museum also recently hand-painted a vintage-style Pen Light sign on the warehouse’s facade, which museum director Stephanie Lile wrote about in her latest Out of the Archives article published in Gig Harbor Now.

PenLight celebrated its 100th anniversary on Monday, July 4, at the Harbor History Museum campus. Photo by Tonya Strickland

Later in the evening on Monday, the party continued with an outdoor awards ceremony recognizing employees, retirees, and community partners. The day highlighted PenLight’s legacy of bringing electricity to local homes starting Dec. 23, 1926 (after the company initially formed in 1925). Today, the utility continues to provide power to Gig Harbor, the Key Peninsula, Fox Island, Raft Island, Herron Island and a small portion of Ollala.

*Gig Harbor Now columnist Greg Spadoni contributed the historical research dates to this story.

PenLight celebrated its 100th anniversary on Monday, July 4, at the Harbor History Museum campus. Photo by Tonya Strickland