Whether it’s the birthplace of a popular brand of coffee or a business center reliant on the Mosquito Fleet, Coupeville’s historic Front Street has a storied history.

That’s one of the reasons the business district is a valuable part of Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve, which is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this week.

In 1968, the Wet Whisker opened in the Abstract Building on Front Street. Through the years the coffee house and ice cream parlor went through several name changes under the same owner. Eventually it became known by its most popular name, Seattle’s Best Coffee.

The venerable coffee brand is just one of the numerous businesses that are part of Coupeville’s history.

Located entirely in Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve, the historic business district still has several buildings that were built in the 19th century as well as evidence of how the town has changed over the years.

Originally dependent on the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet, which provided transport throughout the region, Front Street was the center of business and government for the town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

“The highway used to be the water,” said Paul Whelan, who now owns the Abstract Building that houses Kapaw’s Iskreme.

He said buildings went up rather frequently until 1938, when the post office was built at the corner of Front and Grace streets. At that time, Front Street was the home to several hotels, a movie theater, town offices and the library. But when the Mosquito Fleet ceased operations in 1937, construction on Front Street stopped.

Eventually businesses started moving away from Front Street to other parts of the town.

Whelan pinpointed the end of the old downtown in Coupeville when the drugstore moved to a location on North Main Street across from Whidbey Island Bank. That move occurred in the 1950s.

“That was the beginning of the end for downtown Coupeville,” said Whelan, who is hosting a tour of Front Street businesses Friday. He said that businesses came and went throughout the years but the street never regained its place as Central Whidbey’s center of commerce.

Another resident is busy chronicling the business history of Coupeville by interviewing as many people as possible.

“It’s fascinating and fun,” said Judy Lynn, who has interviewed 20 people for her oral history of business on Front Street with about 60 more to go.

She has learned all sorts of interesting tidbits about Coupeville’s history.

For example, the toilets in the early buildings were simply holes that emptied onto the beach. One of the holes can be still be seen underneath the Kingfisher Bookstore.

She also learned of an incident that took place at Tartans and Tweed, which was located on Front Street. At the time when Katie Zimmeman and Carole Amtmann owned the business, it didn’t have a sewer system but had pipes connected to Toby’s Tavern. During one particularly cold winter, those pipes froze. When the building’s owner, Mel Kroon, used a blow torch to melt the pipes, which were underneath the sidewalk, he inadvertently lit the tar paper on fire.

She also complimented the efforts of Holace Perry and Mickey Becker, who owned the Old Town Shop and mentored several business owners from 1969 to 1986. She said those two were instrumental in helping businesses in Coupeville survive.

“They were really important in the development of Front Street,” Lynn said.

Whelan added that downtown Coupeville continues to change as it is again becoming more of a shopping place for islanders rather than occasional tourists.

“We have people down there who are earning a living rather than supplementing their income,” Whelan said, adding it’s difficult for businesses to rely solely on tourism for their survival.

He pointed out the new construction that has taken place in recent years as a sign of the new vitality of Coupeville.

Front Street went more than 50 years without seeing a new building. Then, starting with the museum in 1989, buildings went up in 1996 and in 2002. There are also plans to build a new restaurant on the water side of Front Street next to the Windjammer Gallery where the dilapidated shack stood.

Downtown merchants are working to increase the visibility of Coupeville by forming a group known as the Coupeville Historic Waterfront Association. Members have teamed up to organize events and spruce up historic Front Street.

Town officials are busy making sure Coupeville keeps its character within the greater landscape of Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve.

Several years ago, the town was able to acquire 11 acres of property, known as Krueger Farm, and preserved it as open space. That, along with state legislation giving the town the ability to work with property owners to downzone land on the town’s borders, provides ways to preserve rural entries into the town.

Conard said officials also try to inform residents, especially people who’ve recently moved into town, about the character and personality of the community.

“We like to say we’re in the heart of the reserve,” Conard said.