Downtown Historic Tour

Bellingham's First People

The historic photograph shows a native encampment on Whatcom Beach at what is today’s Maritime Heritage Park. The beach was at the base of the bluff directly below the Old City Hall building and was used as a seasonal fishing camp by both the  Lummi  and  Nooksack  Tribes. Upon establishment of the Whatcom Mill by Roeder and Peabody, the site continued to be used by settlers and natives as a trading and fishing center.  

First image: Native encampment, mid-1890s

Second image: Map showing 2013 aerial image and historic shoreline.

Third image: Maritime Heritage Park, photo by Steven Niedermeyer (2005).

Whatcom Creek Lumber Mills

The first industry on Bellingham Bay was built by settlers  Captain Henry Roeder  and Russell Peabody in 1853. Lured by plentiful old-growth forests, the men came seeking a waterfall location to supply power. Lummi Chief Chow’it’sut told the men of the falls at lower Whatcom Creek. The Whatcom Mill operated sporadically for many years but was destroyed by fire in 1873. In 1883 the Washington Colony, a group of pioneers from Kansas, rebuilt the mill, as well as a mile-long wharf that extended out over the bay to accommodate large ships. A section of "Colony Wharf" exists today as an extension of C Street.

First image: Whatcom falls and lumber mill, mid-1880s.

Second image: Captain Roeder, undated tintype photograph - circa 1860s.

Whatcom Creek

The name “Whatcom” comes from the Nooksack word meaning "place of noisy rumbling waters." The mouth of Whatcom Creek was originally an estuary, but later the muddy flats of the estuary were filled to create buildable lots, using all types of waste. The creek was later dredged to create deeper access for large ships. By the 1920s this area of Whatcom Creek had become an open sewer and served as the city dump until 1953. In the 1970s environmentalists began restoring Whatcom Creek, and today the former landfills have been reclaimed as riparian areas and parkland. The sewage treatment plant has been repurposed as a fish hatchery.

First image: Map from 1887 U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey T-Sheets.

Second image: Fish Hatchery & Maritime Heritage Park (2013).

Dupont Street Bridge

The 60' long concrete arch bridge which spans Whatcom Creek was built in 1918. In 1856, Captain George Pickett was sent by the U.S. Army to build a fort on Bellingham Bay to protect the four bay towns against Indian raiders from the north. The 1918 bridge replaced an earlier “Military Bridge” built in 1857 to connect Fort Steilacoom in southern Puget Sound with Fort Bellingham. Pickett's Military Bridge is no longer standing, but its approximate location was near the current bridge. Pickett’s house, built in 1856 with boards from the Roeder-Peabody mill, still stands today at 910 Bancroft Street (corner of F Street).

First image: Birdseye view of the City of Whatcom, Washington Territory 1888.

Second image: Photo of the Military Bridge, c. 1900.

Third image: February 1919 photo of the concrete arched bridge.

Fourth image: photo of Pickett's house - 910 Bancroft St (2009).

Lummi Story Pole

311 Grand Ave, Built 1952

Artists: Joseph Hillaire and Herb John

Lummi tribal members Joseph Hillaire and Herb John carved this story pole in 1952 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the arrival of Russell Peabody and Captain Henry Roeder on Bellingham Bay and the generous treatment they received from the Lummi. Different from a totem pole, which depicts a tribal or family history, a story pole tells a Native American legend or folktale. Hillaire's story pole illustrates the history of the Lummi people, and the figures in the canoe represent Lummi Chief Chow’it’sut, sub-chief Tsi’li’x, Roeder and Peabody. Originally erected at the corner of Lottie and Prospect Streets near Whatcom Creek, the pole was restored and moved to its current location in 2007. 

First image: Joe Hillarie at work, 1952, photo by Jack Carver.

Second image: The story pole in its original location, Jack Carver, 1952.

Third image: Detail photo of portion of the story pole, undated.

New City Hall

210 Lottie St, Build 1939

Architect Leonard Bindon

National Register Listed

In 1939 the "new" City Hall replaced the 1892 City Hall on Prospect Street. Built with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA), the Bellingham City Hall is an excellent example of the Art Moderne style. Art Moderne, popular for civic buildings at the time, is closely related to the Art Deco style but more streamlined in its decorative ornament. The building retains its stylized architectural elements including chrome hardware, glass brick walls, and most notably the sculptural figures over the building's main entrance. The two outer figures represent family and labor (one holds a baby, the other a saw), while the middle figure holds a book, representing knowledge and wisdom. 

First image: City Hall, early 1940s.

Second image: City Hall Statues representing Family, Labor and Wisdom (Jim Talbot, 4/09/2011).

Third image: The front entrance to City Hall (Jim Talbot 4/09/2011).

Downtown Living

210 and 214 N Commercial St, Built: Circa 1900

Architects: unknown

Perhaps the repurposing of residential Sylvan Street was foretold in 1909, when it was renamed N. Commercial Street. By the 1920s, commercial growth was pushing downtown into surrounding neighborhoods. Developments, like the Mt. Baker Theatre and the Bellingham Hotel required removal of large tracts of houses. Two survivors from an earlier era are the Queen Anne-style houses at 210 and 214 N. Commercial, though they too have since been adapted to offices and apartments. 

First image: July 1912 aerial image from hot-air balloon, by J.W. Sandison. Annotated with the location of where newer landmarks reside.

Second and third image: 214 N Commercial house then and now.

Fourth and fifth image: 210 N Commercial house then and now

Gilbert Flats

201 N Commercial Street, Built 1906

Architect: unknown

The Classical Revival style Gilbert Flats (today's Avalon Apartments) was one of downtown's first apartment buildings. The Bellingham Herald described the building, named after its owner Dr. O.C. Gilbert, a dentist, as “the leading fashionable apartment house in the city and the most modern.” Modern features included speaking tubes, and electric buttons that closed the street doors from the second floor.

First image: July 1912 aerial from hot-air balloon by J.W. Sandison with the building location circled.

Second image: The Avalon Apartments (Gilbert Flats) - photo by Jim Talbot, 4/13/2009.

Bellingham Hotel 

119 N Commercial Street, Built 1929

Architect: Robert C. Reamer

The Bellingham Hotel (today's Bellingham Towers) represents the last and largest structure built downtown during the pre-Depression building boom. Its architect, Robert C. Reamer, also designed the Mt. Baker Theatre. As part of the "Metropolitan District", the 15-story hotel provided both public and private space for entertainment and accommodations. The Art Deco style skyscraper operated as the Bellingham Hotel from 1930-73.

First image: The Bellingham Hotel, c. 1932.

Second image: What the Bellingham Hotel building looks like in 2014.

Mt Baker Theatre

100 N Commercial Street, Built 1927

Architect: Robert C. Reamer

 National Register Listed 

The Moorish Revival style Mt. Baker Theatre was developed at the end of the prosperous 1920s by the Metropolitan Building Company, an investment syndicate in from Seattle that wanted to broaden its aim and create a new "Metropolitan District" in downtown Bellingham. Though movies were replacing vaudeville at the time, the Mt. Baker was designed as both a stage theater and cinema. It was equipped with a Wurlitzer pipe organ, still in use today, to accompany silent films. Downtown had five other theaters when the Mt. Baker opened in April 1927. Today it’s Bellingham’s lone survivor from the movie palace era. 

Enjoy this  video  of the "Mt Baker Theatre Story" by Lanny Little.

First image: The theatre in 1927 with scaffolding around upper section, by J.W. Sandison.

Second image: undated photo of the Theatre lit up at night.

Third image: View from theatres main stage.

Fourth image: "Gaze above at Mt. Baker Theatre...waiting for the show to start" by Ann Grimm (from the City of Bellingham's 2014 Essence of Bellingham Collection).

Montague & McHugh Department Store

114 West Magnolia Street, Built 1927

Architect: John Graham

 National Register Listed 

Along with the Mt. Baker Theatre and the Bellingham Hotel, one of downtown's most ambitious projects was the Montague and McHugh Department Store. Designed in the Beaux Arts style (French for "fine arts") and faced with ornate glazed terra cotta, the building was the first to be developed in the "Metropolitan District" and was one of Bellingham's finest department stores. During World War II the building was used as a bomb casing factory, but in post-war times it again served downtown shoppers as the Bon Marche.

First image: The building in 1930.

Second image: The building in 2012.

Red Front Building

200 West Holly Street, Built 1900

Architect: William Cox

The Romanesque style Red Front Building still retains most of its original architectural features and ornamentation. Built for Samuel Altshuler’s Red Front Clothing Store, over the last hundred years the building has housed a variety of businesses. The upper floor operated as the Savoy Hotel from 1915 to the early 1960s. Engraved in stone above the front column, the words “Canoe St.” mark the early frontier outlook of downtown that existed before the street names were changed.

First image: The building in 1909.

Second image: The building in 2017.

Third image: photo showing the engraved Canoe St. detail on the building.

Streets with Two Names

In 1889 the Whatcom Creek Estuary was bridged, linking the towns of Whatcom and Sehome and furthering connections and commercial opportunities for what would soon become downtown Bellingham. After the 1904 City of Bellingham consolidation, 106 street names were changed to eliminate duplications that arose during the settlement of the four towns. Streets with descriptive names suggesting frontier life were given more generic names common to other cities or changed to pay tribute to city forefathers. For example, "Elk" and "Canoe/Sylvan" were changed to "State" and "Commercial." Dock Street was changed to Cornwall Avenue, named for Pierre Barlow Cornwall, an early investor in several Bellingham industries. 

First image: 1890 Sanborn map with some of the former street names.

Second image: photo of the construction of the Holly Street bridge that connected the Towns of Whatcom and Sehome (looking Northwest, 1888). See photo location/direction on map.

The Clover Block

201 West Holly Street, Built 1902

Architect: unknown

The Clover Block was designed in the Beaux Arts style as an H-shape with two courts and skylights to maximize light to interior rooms. The ground floor had deeply recessed entries and plate glass windows to display goods, and the second floor offices each had its own sink with hot and cold water. The building is named after the popular poem "Four-Leaf Clover" by  Ella Higginson  (1861-1940). Higginson became poet laureate of Washington State in 1931. Her celebrated poem was inspired by a clover she saw in 1890 while walking in the Old Orchard Tract, today's Orchard Terrace Condominiums at 901 N. Forest Street. 

First image: The building in August 1915.

Second image: Oblique aerial view of the building in 2012.

Third image: A copy of the poem "Four-Leaf Clover" by Ella Higginson.

Bellingham National Bank

101 East Holly Street, Built 1912

Architects: F. Stanley Piper and John Graham

 National Register Listed 

The five-story Chicago style Bellingham National Bank building was dramatically different from the Victorian and Romanesque buildings built by railroad speculators in the late 19th century. The semi-circular fanlight over the business lobby entrance and the shallow, black cast iron bays were decorative features not often seen in Bellingham. Until the Bellingham Herald finished its ornate Gothic Revival building in 1926 at 1155 N. State Street, the Bellingham National Bank was the city's most prestigious business address, with many prominent doctors’ and lawyers’ offices on the upper floors.

First image: Postcard, 1912 colorized version of F. Stanley Piper's drawing

Second image: Photo of the building on 4/17/2009 taken by Jim Talbot.

Third image: "Yesterday's Bank" by Stacie Michaelson (from the City of Bellingham 2014 Essence of Bellingham collection). Image looking up the corner of the building with the clock branded with Bellingham National Bank hanging on the corner.

Fourth image: Picture of the ornate transom window above the main entrance, with its stone arch and carvings. Taken by Patti Krakauer (2015)

Leopold Hotel

1206 Cornwall Avenue, Built 1929

Architect: H.L. Stevens Co. of San Francisco

 National Register Listed 

The nine-story Mission style Leopold Hotel was the third to be built in conjunction with two earlier buildings. The 1899 Byron House Hotel (photo center) was the first to be built, with the smaller building (photo right) added in 1913. The 1913 and 1929 buildings stood side-by-side for 38 years until the Byron House Hotel was demolished in 1967. The 1929 Leopold Hotel tower had 150 rooms equipped with radio speakers and “modern” desk-style telephones with hand-held receivers. When Call of the Wild was filmed in 1935 on Mount Baker, 60 members of the cast and crew stayed at the hotel, including Clark Gable and Loretta Young (with her chaperone). Other distinguished guests were President William H. Taft and child star Shirley Temple.

first image: The Leopold Hotel with the Byron House Hotel buildings in 1953, photo taken by Jack Carver.

Second image: Photo showing the Leopold Hotel in 2014.

Milwaukee Road Freight Station

200 East Chestnut Street, Built 1943

Architect: unknown

The Milwaukee Railroad took over the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia (BB&BC) Railway around 1911. The station pictured was built in the 1940s and served the railroad until 1980, when the Milwaukee Railroad went into bankruptcy. The building was repurposed in the late 1990s as the La Fiamma Wood Fire Pizza restaurant. 

First image: photo of the building in 1969.

Second image: undated photo of the building as La Fiamma Pizza.

Washington Grocery Company Warehouse

1125 Railroad Avenue, Built 1912

Architect: unknown

 National Register Listed 

Stephen Glascock built the three-story concrete building as the Washington Grocery Company headquarters. The warehouse was oriented toward Railroad Avenue, and a spur connected it to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad for easy loading. This end of Railroad Avenue was a warehouse district that served the needs of wholesale businesses. Early in the 20th century the area hosted auto garages, machine and boiler shops, light industrial sheds, and lodging houses for workers. It continued to be a warehouse district until World War II.  

First image: The Building, circa 1930.

Second image: The Building in 2012.

Former site of BB&BC Train Passenger Depot

(Depot Market) 1100 Railroad Avenue, Built 1891

Architect: unknown

The Bellingham Bay & British Columbia (BB&BC) train depot once stood on the same block between Chestnut and Maple Streets where the Depot Market now stands. The local BB&BC built the depot in 1891 for passenger service and hand freight, which was delivered to nearby businesses by using a "dray" (a strong, low cart). In 1892 the railroad company built the BB&BC Hotel next to the station to accommodate the droves of passengers arriving in downtown Bellingham.

First image: Photo showing train pulling up to station, circa 1905.

Second image: Photo showing the current Depot Market in 2014.

State Street - Frontier Road to Commercial Corridor

State Street was originally named Elk Street and began as a muddy road servicing the Sehome Mine in the 1850s. The Sehome Mine was located near what is today the intersection of Laurel Street and Railroad Avenue. Improvements to Elk were made in the late 1800s by adding wood-planks to roadways and sidewalks to keep people, horses, and wagons moving smoothly. By 1904 with the consolidation of the City of Bellingham, the street had evolved into a fully-fledged urban corridor paved in brick and serviced by a main streetcar line, with stately masonry buildings along both sides of the street. The original name of "Elk" was changed to "State" in 1926 to reflect the metamorphosis from frontier town to metropolitan center.

First image: Photo of State Street looking south - circa 1889.

Second image: Photo of State Street looking north - circa 1886.

Scottish Rite Temple/Masonic Hall

1101 North State Street, Built 1905

Architect: Proctor [John G.] & Farrell of Tacoma

The exotic character of the Egyptian Revival style Masonic Hall is created by the large concrete lotus columns and its vertical cast iron ornamentation at the parapet on the front and south side façades. Fraternal lodges and secret societies were popular ways for men to socialize in the late 19th century. The Masons, or freemasons, were one of these popular societies. The masons organized a lodge in Bellingham as early as 1883, and in 1905 when the Scottish Rite Temple was built, the “Blue Lodge” Bellingham Masons had a membership of 200.

First image: Photo of building - circa 1930s

Second image: Photo of building in 2012

Herald Building

1155 North State Street, Built 1926

Architect: F. Stanley Piper w/Earl Wilson Morrison & Van Salisbury Stimson

 National Register Listed 

The Gothic Revival style Bellingham Herald Building was constructed of steel and faced in terra cotta and stone. The Herald newspaper evolved from the 1890s Fairhaven Herald, whose name changed to "Bellingham" Herald after the city consolidated in 1904. Promoters originally wanted to call it the “Metropolitan Building,” indicative of the city's evolution during the prosperous 1920s. With the addition of the new six-story Herald Building, the corridor was considered so important to downtown that 50 merchants on Elk Street petitioned the City Council to change the street’s name to the more metropolitan “State” Street, which was accomplished on April 13, 1926.

First image: The Herald Building in 1926, taken by J.W. Sandison.

Second image: photo of the Herald Building taken by Jim Talbot, 5/25/2009.

Hotel Laube

1224 North State Street, Built 1904

Architect: unknown

 National Register Listed 

State Street had a concentration of turn-of-the-century hotels that served businesspeople and visitors before the newer, larger Bellingham and Leopold Hotels were built in the late 1920s. Originally a 51-room hotel, in its prime the Laube was served by the primary north-south streetcar, featured a lobby for travelling salesmen's displays and had an 80-seat café. By the 1930s, the Laube had lost its stylishness and was primarily used as inexpensive single-room lodging. In 2008 the Laube was rehabilitated into 20 affordable apartments and two commercial spaces by the Bellingham Housing Authority.

First image: The building in 1904.

Second image: The building in 2009.

Exchange Building

1248 North State Street, Built 1908

Architect: James C. Teague

The Exchange Building, named in reference to the 1903 New York Stock Exchange building, was intended to give businesses a centralized location in the new City of Bellingham. Building owners Samuel and Joseph Alsop began their ascent to wealth as butchers and went on to make a fortune in salmon trapping. In 1923 the building was repurposed as the Hotel Henry, and in 1942 the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) moved into the building from its location across the street (311 E. Holly Street). In 1968 the building was “modernized” and covered with a gold mesh façade that obscured the "old fashioned" brick work. The mesh was removed in 1992, revealing the original brick detailing and scrolled corbels at the top floor cornice.

First image: Postcard from 1907.

Second image: The modernized building with its mesh façade, circa 1974 by Galen Blery

Third image: The building with the modernization removed to reveal its historic structure taken in 2012.

Old State Hwy 99

Before the Interstate Highway system came to Bellingham in the 1960s, State Highway 99 was the major route for all points north and south, bringing motorists and prospective shoppers directly into downtown along Holly Street. From the 1920s through the 1950s, downtown Bellingham was a bustling hub for travelers as well as for local shoppers and diners. J.C. Penny’s, Woolworth’s, Newberry’s, Montgomery Ward, Sears, and other major national chains all had retail stores downtown. By the 1950s, downtown began experiencing traffic congestion and parking shortages, and in the 1960s, much of the through traffic was being diverted to the new Interstate-5.

First image: Holly Street, circa 1950.

Second image: Inside the Horseshoe Cafe, photo by Jack carver, c. 1958

YMCA

311 East Holly Street, Built 1906

Architect:  Alfred Lee 

This Richardsonian Romanesque style building with a façade heavily clad in Chuckanut sandstone was Bellingham’s first Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) building. Its architect, Alfred Lee, also designed the 1892 City Hall. The building originally had offices and a gymnasium on the first floor, and the upper floors had dormitory rooms and small apartments. In 1942, the YMCA moved to the former Hotel Henry in the Exchange Building on State Street. The original YMCA Building became apartments upstairs, while the main floor served as lodge rooms for the International Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.).

First image: The building in 1908.

Second image: 1907 Postcard. 

Third image: The building in 2009.

Dahlquist Building

1311-1313 North State Street, Built 1907-08

Architect: James C Teague

This building was constructed for Thomas Dahlquist to house his Bellingham Bay (B.B.) Grocery Company and was designed by James Teague, the architect of the Exchange Building at 1248 N. State Street. Teague included raised letters spelling out "Dahlquist" in the cornice niches above the third-floor windows. In 1908, Dahlquist claimed to have the oldest grocery business in Bellingham, dating back twenty years to the old Sehome days, and could recall delivering customers' provisions by wheelbarrow to shacks in the wilderness, as far away as Franklin Street in today's York Neighborhood. 

First image: the building and street scape in 1912.

Second image: The building in 2014.

Third image: Detail photo of the raised lettering in the cornice spelling out "Dahlquist".

Union Depot

1322 North State Street, Built 1922

Architect: Frank C. Burns

This building was originally the station for electric “Interurban” streetcars and motor buses. The Interurban ran between Bellingham and Mt. Vernon, with a spur at Burlington for Sedro Woolley. The buses or “stages” made connections to Whatcom County destinations including Lynden, Blaine, Sumas, Acme, Deming and Ferndale. In 1922, there were 17 such stage lines completing 77 daily trips. Pacific Northwest Traction, a subsidiary of Puget Sound Power & Light, operated the Interurban streetcars, which ended passenger service in 1928 as buses ultimately proved more popular and cost efficient. In 1930, Puget Sound Power & Light moved to its new building across the street (1329 N State), and with it went the bus depot.

First image: J.W. Sandison photo of opening day in 1922.

Second image: The building in 2012.

Puget Sound Power & Light Building

1329 North State Street, Built 1930

Architect: unknown

This buff colored brick building was originally home to the Bellingham offices of Puget Sound Power & Light Company. The decorative caps on the pilasters at the roofline are indicative of the building’s Art Deco influences. The “stage depot” on the first floor had been relocated from the old Union Depot across State Street, and had a covered concourse to protect passengers from the rain. The first floor housed the ticket office, restrooms, a restaurant, barber shop, and soda fountain. Greyhound acquired the bus service in 1948 and operated from the building until it moved to Fairhaven Station in the renovated headquarters of Pacific American Fisheries, 401 Harris Ave. in 1994.

First image: Photo of the building with Greyhound bus turning into the station, taken by Jack Carver in 1953.

Second image: The building in 2012.

Third image: Detail photo of the stonework above the main entrance on State Street, taken by Patti Krakauer (2015).

Alley Freight Delivery

The railroad tracks in the alley between State Street and Railroad Avenue can be traced back to the Bellingham Bay & Eastern Railroad (BB&E), which established this route in 1892 to bring Blue Canyon coal from Lake Whatcom to a bunker on Bellingham Bay. The BB&E was acquired by the Northern Pacific Railway in 1902 following completion of its line along the north shore of Lake Whatcom to Wickersham, where it connected with the Northern Pacific’s north-south route between Seattle and Sumas. Downtown businesses facing Elk (State) Street or Railroad Avenue located there to take full advantage of the Northern Pacific's backdoor service. Loading docks, which once lined the alley and facilitated movement of freight on and off box cars, can still be seen a few feet above grade indicating where trains once stopped.

First image: Northern Pacific train traveling behind the Scottish Rite Temple/Masonic Hall Building (Location 22), taken by Terrance Whal circa mid-1950s.

Second image: Photo looking down the alley showing the remnants of rail track, 2015.

Spokane Building

1322 Railroad Avenue, Built 1903

Architect: F.C. Burns

The Spokane Building has been used as a feed store ever since it was built for Franklin J. Farley. The building was financed by investors from Spokane, Washington, who built on speculation of an east-west railroad connection between Bellingham and Spokane (which failed to materialize). In 1923, George Hohl’s firm moved in to sell fertilizer and poultry supplies. The company became Hohl’s Feed & Seed in 1945 and shared the building with grain operators Farley-Clark Inc. and Clark Feed & Seed. The second floor was generally known to have been operated as a brothel, which was legal in Bellingham until 1948. The upstairs lodging house operated from 1904-24 and was called the Spokane House (or Hotel) from 1925-48. This building has since been lost due to a fire in February 2019.

First image: Photo showing Hohl's feed and seed in April 1960, taken by Jack Carver.

Second image: Photo showing Hohl Garden and Pet in 2012.

Third image: Photo showing some of the architectural elements of the building, including the brick arched windows, cornice with dentils, taken by Patti Krakauer in 2015.

Railroad Avenue

Railroad Avenue was considered downtown's "workhorse" street. Designed to accommodate four sets of tracks for freight delivery from the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia (BB&BC) Railroad, Railroad Avenue attracted machinery and repair shops, warehouses, agricultural supply and manufacturing businesses. As downtown matured and became more "metropolitan", not only did the noise of the trains disturb business owners, visitors, and residents, but they also blocked automobile traffic. A Bellingham Herald editorial claimed that “the running of trains through the heart of the city . . . is no longer tolerable [and] the injury to retail business property is enormous.” The rail line was decommissioned by 1980. 

First image: J.W Sandison photo of three rows of train cars in Railroad Avenue, circa 1914.

Second image: Photo by Jack Carber showing crew preforming ballast and rail leveling on railroad between Chestnut and Holly Streets.

Bellingham Federal Building

104 West Magnolia Street, Built 1912-13

Architect: James Knox Taylor

 National Register Listed 

The Bellingham Federal Building was designed for the U.S. Post Office with the needs of the elderly and handicapped patrons in mind. The street-level entrance was uncommon at the time (most US Post Offices had their entrance at the top of a flight of steps), and was the idea of Bellingham postmaster Hugh Eldridge. The building was designed in the Beaux Arts style, popular for public and institutional buildings around the turn of the 20th century. The style used classical Greek and Roman forms and features such as massive plans, heavy masonry and elaborate detailing. Like the Clover Block's "H" plan, the Federal Building was designed as an "O" plan, creating an interior light well.

First image: Photo of the completed building in 1913.

Second image: Photo of the Christmas rush at the Post Office, taken by Jack Carver in 1947.

Third image: An oblique aerial view showing the building's interior light well, circa 2010.

Fourth image: Photo of architectural details including arched windows, dentils, and ornamentation atop the walls, taken by Patti Krakauer in 2015.

Bellingham Public Market

1400 Cornwall Avenue, Built 1916

Architect: unknown

Today's Rite Aid building was originally built as the Bellingham Public Market. Downtown Bellingham had many public markets, offering food and specialty items and operating something like today’s farmers’ market, but located in permanent buildings. The Bellingham Public Market had 23 vendors, including a grocery, meat and fish market, a restaurant and soda fountain, a watchmaker, florist, and wood and coal dealers. The building had lift-up overhead bay doors, freight delivery in the alley and a streetcar stop on the corner for customers. The Bellingham Public Market closed in 1957, then housed a Pay ‘n Save before becoming Rite Aid. 

First image: The Bellingham Public Market in 1918.

Second image: The Public Market building in 2014 as Rite Aid.

Benevolent Protective Order of Elks

1412 Cornwall Avenue, Build 1912

Architect: William Cox

 National Register Listed 

This handsome buff-colored brick building was originally a clubhouse for the fraternal society “Benevolent Protective Order of Elks." For many years the Elks Club was one of Bellingham's most prestigious social organizations, having many political and civic leaders as members. The building offered members use of card rooms, pool tables, and a three-lane bowling alley. The first floor had offices and reading rooms, the second floor a large ballroom. The Elks Club was a place to gather and socialize, but the Elks were also a service organization and contributed to many charitable, patriotic, and civic causes, as well as supporting youth activities.

First image: Photo of the building in 1915.

Second image: Photo of the building in 2012.

Urbanizing Downtown's Natural Landscape

Originally a collection of hills and rocky outcrops, the downtown landscape has been leveled over time to create more amenable building sites and allow storefronts to open directly onto the street and sidewalks. Some remnants of the original landscape still remain, however, marked by houses sited on hills above the street, alleys that climb 20' above street level, and urban "fossils" (irregular impressions on otherwise smooth concrete walls). Look down the alley behind the Mt. Baker Theater to see one of the few remaining rocky outcrops of downtown's natural landscape.  

First image: Photo of the Commercial Street re-grade in 1909.

Second image: photo of remaining rock outcrop, or old grade behind Mt. Baker Theatre in 2014.

Public Comfort Station

109 Champion Street, Built 1928

Architect: F. Stanley Piper

This small, irregularly shaped building was designed as a public restroom to accommodate visitors to the Tulip Festival, which had reached its peak of popularity in the late 1920s. The exotic Greek Key frieze at the buildings cornice seems unexpected for a restroom and surely would have impressed festival visitors. The comfort station was built up to the bluff upon which the Carnegie Public Library stood, accounting for the nearly triangular floor plan. 

First image: Early 1950's photo of the building with its arched entry and screened windows, with the Carnegie Library rising behind it.

Second image: A photo of the building in 2012 with a modified entrance.

Carnegie Library

109 Champion Street, Built 1908, (demolished 1953, currently a parking lot)

Architect: Alfred Lee

In 1903 Bellingham’s first Carnegie library was built on 12th Street in Fairhaven. In 1906, Bellingham became one of only two cities in the country to win a second grant to build a Carnegie library in the newly consolidated Downtown Bellingham. Patrons had to climb 45 steep steps to reach the front door of the building, which sat high upon a rocky hill. The stairs proved to be a hindrance for the library, and almost immediately library boosters began looking for a new central library site. It was 1951 before they found the current site at 210 Central Ave. In 1953, the downtown Carnegie library was demolished, and the hill was excavated to street grade. Today the site is a parking lot. 

First image: Photo from 1910 showing a woman halfway up the steep stairway to the entrance.

Second image: Drawing by F.H. Thompson. Reflecting public distain of the stairs, an editorial cartoon in the 1930s depicted the library as if it were at the summit of a mountain and its patrons as mountain climbers scaling the snowy slopes in hopes of a good read.

Third image: A photo of Lanny Little's mural of the Carnegie Library on the side of the Montague & McHugh Building, next to where the library once stood (2014).

Whatcom meets Sehome

An iron bolt, dating back to the surveys made in 1858 of Sehome and Whatcom, was driven into solid rock at the intersection of Champion and Holly. A granite sculpture marks the point today. The boundary between the early towns of Whatcom and Sehome is evident in this section of downtown from the numerous flatiron buildings and triangular lots along Champion. Triangular buildings such as these are called “flatiron” because their shape resembles an iron used to press clothes. In 1889 a bridge was built over the Whatcom Creek estuary (todays Holly Street Bridge), linking the towns of Sehome and Whatcom. This connection led to the unification of the two towns in 1891 as New Whatcom.

First image: J.W. Sandison, July 1912 photograph taken from a hot-air balloon showing the many flatiron buildings along Champion Street.

Second image: Photo of the granite sculpture commemorating the Iron bolt location.

L.C. Countryman Building (Pickford Theatre)

1316 Bay Street, Built 1904

Architect: 1924 renovation by  T.F Doan 

Today's Pickford Theatre was originally built as a discount, or “racket” store by L.C. Countryman in 1904. The term “racket” comes from the noise made by peddlers’ carts by the banging of pots and pans attached to the carts, and was a common term for these types of stores at the time. The business was originally located at the corner of Holly and C Streets, but in 1904 with the consolidation of the City of Bellingham, Countryman moved his store to the desirable up-and-coming Bay Street location. In 1924 the building was updated to its current appearance in the popular Spanish Colonial Revival style, with glazed terra cotta tile work on the ground floor and stucco on the upper story.

First image: Photo of the Racket store in 1905.

Second image: Undated photo of the current building as the Pickford Film Center.

Bellingham Bay Furniture Company (Flatiron) Building

1313 Bay Street, Built 1907

Architect: Frank C. Burns

 National Register Listed 

The Flatiron Building was built for T.S. Hamilton's Bellingham Bay (B.B.) Furniture Company and was one of the first commercial buildings in the Pacific Northwest to be constructed entirely of reinforced concrete. The B.B. Furniture Building suffered a catastrophic fire on April 28, 1924, but the concrete structure's integrity survived. The interior of the building was rebuilt and a fire suppression system was added that included a large water tank on the roof. Known as Bellingham's first skyscraper, the Flatiron Building served as the city's tallest building until 1926.  

First image: View looking north down Bay Street with the Flatiron building on the left in 1913.

Second image: Same northerly view down Bay Street taken in 2011.

Barlow Building

211 West Holly Street, Built 1892

Architect: F. Stanley Piper

 National Register Listed 

Originally built for Phillip Baum's Grocery store, over the decades this building also housed the Crown Bar and Cliff Barlow's Leather Goods specialty store. In 1925 the building façade was remodeled in the Spanish Mission style. In the 1950s the store’s name was changed to Barlow’s Luggage, selling saddles, suitcases, and soles for shoes. Barlow operated his store for 40 years, closing it in 1959. The building subsequently served as a hardware store, an appliance store, and the Bellingham Beauty School. After the beauty school moved out in 2003, the new owner removed the applied metal façade, once again exposing the 1925 brickwork.

First image: Photo by J.W. Macy of the building in 1925.

Second image: A 1926 image by J.W. Sandison showing the Barlow building next to the Northwest Hardware Co.

Third image: Photo of how the building looks in 2017.

Bay Street Public Market/Sears/Bay Street Village

301 West Holly Street, Built 1926

Architect: F. Stanley Piper

This Tudor revival style half-timbered building with gabled dormers was described as an “Old English” design when it was first constructed as the Bay Street Market. Its British-born architect, F. Stanley Piper, designed many other Bellingham buildings, both commercial and residential, in the Tudor and Gothic revival styles. To attract customers, the building had twin entrances on Holly and Bay Streets and was conveniently located on the trolley line, but also provided parking spaces for customers with automobiles. The public market later became a Sears store from 1928 until September 1949, when the new Sears opened on Cornwall. 

First image: Photo of the building by J.W. Sandison, circa 1926.

Second image: Photo showing the building in 2013.