Between Downtown and Fairhaven, Bellingham has fewer remaining historic buildings compared to other Washington cities. Many date only back to the late 19th to early 20th centuries, yet they bear architectural features that puzzle onlookers today.
Second-story doors, old-fashioned sidewalk tiles, and odd architectural styles are among the curious incidents. What purposes did these originally serve? Did Bellingham have its own built-over Wild West like the Seattle Underground? Some of these sights have mundane explanations, but they all reveal a vibrant history of built environments.
As Above…
“Doors to nowhere” on building exteriors have always invited speculation about the former purpose they may have served. In Bellingham, several buildings’ facades reflect historic changes to their floorplans.
The Dahlquist Building presents peculiar sights front-to-back: a ghost sign reads “Hotel Mullin” above the burnt-out upper windows in front, and a second-story red door reads “Antler Apt” by boarded windows in back. These names reflect its time as Hotel Mullin from 1913 to 1925, Antler Hotel until 1945, Moore Apartments until 1947, and finally Antler Apartments until 1976. The answer lies in the damage: a fire in the apartments’ final year destroyed the upper two floors, and the door — a fire escape — only escaped with its stairs removed to stabilize the building.
Fairhaven’s Knights of Pythias Building has likewise had its historical fire escape stairs removed from its rear wall above present-day Colophon Café and Village Books and Paper Dreams. As Fairhaven History notes, this removal in the 1970s deterred squatters from Fairhaven’s hippie community. But the second-story doors reflect the building’s internal renovations, as its current tenants occupy the expanded former basement. Inside the disused third floor, the building still has a peephole door guarding its original halls for fraternal organizations.
The T.G. Richards Building or Territorial Courthouse — Bellingham’s oldest building and Washington’s oldest brick building circa 1858 — has almost the opposite effect. It rises from the industrial waterfront as though the city is swallowing it, concealing the basement that was once its ground floor. The second story became the first when the city filled in mudflats to construct Lettered Streets — after its uses as a gold rush store, courthouse, and jail. Today, it houses the Helen Loggie Museum of Art, and the Waterfront Seafood and Bar (circa 1912) is the only remaining Old Town building on stilts over the mudflats.
…So Below
Bellingham’s sidewalks, streets, and roads also reflect what’s buried underneath the historic constructs.
Purple glass tiles on the sidewalk are a familiar site to anyone who has visited the Seattle Underground. These “vault lights” illuminate the basements underneath, manganese in the glass turning it from clear to purple after sunlight exposure.
In Bellingham, Whatcom Family YMCA has vault lights above a basement space where retailers such as a barbershop once operated via the former Sunset Building. This sight has inspired local legends about tunnel systems underneath Bellingham, even incorporating the real history of Sehome Coal Mine, but the YMCA’s basement only serves as storage.
The YMCA also occupies a different building than it started with in 1903. The Odd Fellows Building earned its name after the YMCA moved to the 1906 Exchange Building in 1942 and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows moved in. The Orion, the building’s present-day bar and music venue, pays homage to its arcane history with fraternal order-themed décor.
Bellingham’s roads also bear witness to transit history with their remnants of railroad and streetcar systems. Several rails still run along the pavement of Railroad Avenue, Orchard Place, Squalicum Way near Cornwall and Squalicum Parks, and Fairhaven’s Finnegan Way and 11th Street. In Fairhaven, stretches of Harris Avenue are still paved with red bricks from the streetcar that was discontinued by 1940. The Interurban Trail, Railroad Trail, South Bay Trail, and others have converted original routes from “rails to trails.”
Architectural Oddities All Around Us
Still other architectural features of Bellingham preserve the consistent styles and materials of the past. Chuckanut sandstone has been the building material peculiar to the region since Henry Roeder first started the Chuckanut Stone Quarry in 1856. It has featured in the construction of the Lottie Roth Block, Bellingham Armory, Whatcom Falls Park’s bridge recycled from the former Pike Building, and even Seattle’s Pioneer Square.
Old buildings’ ghost signs throughout downtown and Fairhaven reflect the practice of painting advertisements onto brick buildings. Of the buildings discussed here, the Dahlquist Building, Knights of Pythias Building, and Odd Fellows Building all bear ghost signs.
Bellingham’s historic buildings bear the signature of many prominent architects. Frederick Stanley Piper built the Bellingham Herald Building, Bellingham Fine Arts Building, Eldridge Mansion, and Great Northern Railroad Passenger Station. Alfred Lee built the Old City Hall, original YMCA building, and numerous historic homes and churches. Henry Bacon, the Lincoln Memorial architect, built the 1906 George Bacon House for his first cousin in the Classical Revival (or “Jeffersonian Classicism”) style.
Some of Bellingham’s rarer architectural styles include the Egyptian style of the Masonic Hall, European style of Lairmont Manor, and mix of Second Empire, Queen Anne, and Romanesque Revival styles of the Old City Hall Building (modern-day Whatcom Museum).
Bellingham’s architectural oddities don’t end with relics of historic industry. Between throwbacks like the red brick Fairhaven Tower and new murals and ornamentation all over town, new works keep the city’s subdued excitement going.
