The Dog House Tavern

The Dog House Tavern at 230 First St. is Langley’s oldest surviving commercial building and a stubborn survivor. Raised in 1908 as the Olympic Club—a hardwood‑floored hall for boxing matches, dances, and the town’s first film screenings—it shifted identities through Howard’s Confectionery, a mercantile, boarding rooms, and, from 1937, the tavern every resident over forty still remembers. Seasons of logging paydays, ferry layovers, and muddy softball teams kept the lights on until 2009, when code violations and a sagging foundation shut the doors. New owners bought the property at auction in 2010. Their first plan to demolish the structure drew a preservation outcry, and the city froze teardown permits. Since 2015 the couple has pursued a slower, costlier rescue: new concrete footings, ste