Businesswoman turns store into work of art
Marilyn Staples has spent the past 30 years turning a former art supply store into a work of art — and one of the most popular stores in downtown Port Townsend.
The Green Eyeshade, housed in a modest building on Water Street, boasts one of the widest collections of kitchen and dining accessories on the North Olympic Peninsula, largely because of Staples’ management.
“I came in to serve coffee and cake on the store’s 10th anniversary, and I never left,” she said.
Staples and her husband, John, an Army chaplain stationed at Fort Lewis near Tacoma, bought a summer home in Discovery Bay in 1971 and moved to Port Townsend permanently in 1980 when he retired.
They still live in that house, an 1888 Victorian on the hill just above her shop. She can almost see it from her office.
They have three grown children, Peter, Ann and Cece, and three grandchildren, ages 26, 25 and 16.
Staples was born in Greenfield, Ohio, and moved many times with her Army husband. This is the longest time she’s lived in one place.
“It’s where I’ve truly settled,” she said. “It’s a wonderful place to live — there’s so much going on, arts, culture, restaurants. What’s not to like?”
Staples had no retail experience when she first ventured into the store in 1980, but when the previous co-owner, Dorine Edwards, asked her to develop a kitchen department in the art supply store, a career was born.
