Development of two properties in town helped transform La Conner from a sleepy waterfront village to the “Inn” place to be on Puget Sound.

One, now the La Conner Country Inn, was a low-lying, flood-prone area. Several wartime housing units constructed during the 1940s were moved there from Whidbey Island.

“They were not exactly built to last,” recalls Rick Thompson, whose father, the late Paul Thompson, bought the cabins and property at Second and Morris streets nearly a half-century ago.

“I don’t know much about the history of the buildings except that Gene Senff purchased them from the naval...