Experience the Fort Vancouver Kitchen

On select days, you can watch meals being cooked 1840s-style in the Fort Vancouver Kitchen!

NPS Photo

At the reconstructed Fort Vancouver, you can watch a cooking demonstration from the 1840s in the fort's Kitchen!

The original Kitchen must have been a busy, bustling place throughout the day, from well before sunrise until late evening: steaming kettles, cuts of meat roasting over glowing embers, the rhythmic sound of vegetables being chopped, stacks of dishes awaiting washing in wooden tubs, servants scurrying about, and the air fragrant with cooking smells, pipe tobacco and sweaty bodies.
 

Many activities vital to the good order of the fort’s daily routine would have taken place in the Kitchen. Not just cooking, but also dish washing, heating shaving water for the residents of the Big House and Bachelors Hall, candle making, pickling meats and vegetables, and polishing the clerks’ shoes, to name a few.
 

There is no record of how many people actually worked in the Kitchen other than the two stewards and the gardener, but a half-dozen or more doesn’t seem unrealistic in view of the staggering amount of work that had to be accomplished every day.
 

You are invited to step into the reconstructed Kitchen and perhaps catch the fragrance of roasting meat or maybe the tantalizing aroma of a freshly baked tart. The staff and volunteers that work in the kitchen are constantly busy, demonstrating the ways of cooking in the early 19th century and telling about the farms, gardens, and orchards that supplied the meat, vegetables, and fruit to the table.
 

Kitchen demonstrations are volunteer based. To check if a volunteer will be doing a demonstration in the Kitchen on the day of your visit, call the Contact Station at [phone] on the morning of your visit.

Learn more about the Kitchen at Fort Vancouver here.

Details

Duration

5-30 Minutes

Activity

Living History

Pets Allowed

No

Pets are not allowed inside the reconstructed Fort Vancouver.

Activity Fee

Yes

Entrance fees to the reconstructed fort can be paid at the Contact Station just inside the fort gates. Learn more about fees and passes here.

Location

The Fort Vancouver Kitchen

Once inside the stockade of the reconstructed Fort Vancouver, follow the paths around the large, white Chief Factor's House to the wooden building behind it.

Reservations

No

Season

Year Round

Time of Day

Day

Cooking demonstrations are provided when volunteers are present. Please call [phone] to find out if there will be a demonstration on the day of your visit.

Accessibility Information

The Kitchen is wheelchair accessible. Please be aware of bumps and dips at the entrances to the building. The Kitchen is often low lit and can be dark, especially on cloudy days. Please watch your step and give yourself time to adjust to the low light.