Bellingham was incorporated in 1903 by combining Bellingham, Whatcom, Fairhaven, and Sehome into one city. Whatcom Falls was settled in 1852 when Captain Henry Roeder built a sawmill there. Coal mining began in 1854, and the bay served as a staging area for the ill-fated Fraser River gold rush (1857–58). The “Old Town” area of Whatcom was founded in 1852 with Roeder’s Mill. A coal mine founded in 1854 led to the creation of Sehome, a place of downtown. Dan Harris founded Fairhaven in 1883, and it was a large commercial district and harbor located around his homestead on Padden Creek.
Railway connections and improved harbor facilities in the early 20th Century led to the development of Bellingham’s timber-pulp operations, fish canneries, and pleasure boat building industries. Mountain Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest is near Bellingham, which is also a gateway to the San Juan Islands. Whatcom Community College was founded in 1967 and Western Washington University in 1893. The Whatcom Museum of History and Art contains documents and artifacts on local history in four buildings.
Below are some stunning historical photos of Bellingham from the late 19th and 20th Centuries
#1 Inspiration point, Chuckanut drive, 1920
#2 Old main at state college, 1900s
#3 Early Whatcom County logging photo showing the tools of the trade
#4 U.S. federal building, downtown Bellingham.
#5 Larrabee grammar school built 1890
#6 Bellingham coal mine, 1954, the year it closed
#7 Interior Bellingham national bank.
#8 Clark Gable, Jack Oakie, during filming of “call of the wild” near mount baker, 1935
#9 Old main, state normal school, 1910
#10 Sehome schoolhouse.
#11 Bellingham Canning, 1900
#12 Company M, 2nd Infantry, Bellingham, 1910
#13 Edens Hall, Western Washington College of Education,1937
#14 Yachting on Bellingham Bay, 1907
#15 Roth apartments, w. Holly.
#16 After a snowstorm, in downtown Bellingham: holly street, block west of Cornwall (dock St.), 1940.
#17 Early logging – old growth Douglas fir
#18 The Leopold hotel, 1910
#19 Bellingham Blossomtime parade, 1961
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The Fairhaven Jr. High band was in this parade with our brand-new uniforms. We were stylin’! 🙂
#20 View across Whatcom creek waterway, 1920s
#21 First Edward Eldridge home, built 1876, burned 1878
#22 Cascade laundry, 1940
#23 William Thompson cabin, mount baker, 1894
#24 Hotel baker, 1910.
#25 Bellingham theater guild presents “sweet charity,” 1948
#26 View of downtown Bellingham, 1940s
#27 Bellingham tulip fields 1898-1929
#28 Washington Avenue, Blaine.
#29 Blossomtime parade, 1954
#30 Miners posing at entrance of blue canyon mine, 1891
#31 An “Indian pow-wow” in Cornwall Park – not an actual gathering of native Americas, but, rather, middle class white kids, 1920
#32 Looking southwest from chestnut street, Sehome, 1889
#33 Chuckanut gardens, 1960
#34 Clyde banks, preparing to take the first aerial photos of mt. Baker, 1920
#35 Mount baker lodge
#36 Boy fishing on Nooksack, 1920
#37 Whatcom falls, 1910
#38 Bellingham waterfront 1915
#39 Mount baker summit party 1906
#40 Bellingham coal miners at work, 1935
#41 remains of fort Bellingham 1894
#42 railroad avenue, ca. 1960
#43 Bellingham pulp mill, 1950
#44 Richards building, erected 1858 – oldest brick building north of San Francisco
#45 City of Bellingham, 1900
#46 Engineers Side, Alco 2-6-2 Locomotive no. 1, 1909
#47 3 Truck Shay Locomotive #5 & Willamette Tree Rig Skidder
#48 Old growth cedar stump, 1912
#49 Elk Street, 1890
#50 Blossomtime parade, 1961
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Looks like in front of Roeder School—-. The parade route was on Broadway that year. Well that’s what I think I remember 😂!
#51 Sehome grade school, built 1890 on present site of laurel park.
#52 Early loggers, Whatcom County.
#53 Holly Street, looking west, 1940
#54 Ymca band, 1912
#55 City of Arlington float in 1959 Blossomtime parade
#56 Cornwall Park
#57 Bellingham coal mine, 1950
#58 Chuckanut drive.
#59 Dot Island in Chuckanut bay.
#60 Fountain baker.
#61 Fountain drug, 1950
#62 Washington poet Laureate Ella Higginson’s house
#63 Henry Roeder mansion, aka “elmheim,” aka”roeder-roth home”
#64 Elk (state) street
#65 Holly McCracken’s
#66 Holly Street, 1900
#67 Downtown Bellingham, 1910
#68 House built by Jack Holeman, current site of burger kind, telegraph rd., Bellingham.
#69 Larrabee school building.
#70 Yachting
#71 Military bridge built across Whatcom creek by George Pickett
#72 Mt. Baker summit party, 1891
#73 Sumas front.
#74 Montague McHugh building before the coming of the bon.
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Just to the left of the small building was the original library—I would love to see a picture of that.
#75 Sehome grade school built 1890 on present site of laurel park, Bellingham
#76 Bellingham Airport, 1950
#77 Boats in Squalicum Harbor, Bellingham Yacht Club building, 1900
#78 Crane on Dock, 1967
#79 Firemans Side, 3 Truck Shay Locomotive #7 & 3 Truck Climax Locomotive #1 With a String of Loaded Log Flats
#80 Higgins house, Bellingham, 1950
#81 Longstaff house, Bellingham, 1968
#82 Mack Truck on Rails at The Landing Getting The Peak Log Loaded, 1926
#83 Bridge near Nugents Corner, 1947
#84 Shamrock II Information Center, 1955
#85 2-6-4T Locomotive #2
#86 2-6-6-2 Locomotive #14 With 43 Loaded Connected Log Cars
#87 3 Truck Climax Locomotive no. 11 CN 1632
#88 Cornwall, Leopold hotel and “sanitarium” baths, 1920
#89 Original signage at entrance of Cornwall Park
#90 Sightseeing along Chuckanut, 1930s
#91 Early image of Elizabeth Park
#92 Elks parade on commercial street
#93 A room in the historic Fairhaven hotel
#94 Historic flooding in Ferndale, 1905
#95 Soaping the fountain in the fountain district has been a common prank across the years.
#96 1970s view showing storefronts across from fountain in fountain district
#97 Military bridge across Whatcom creek, build by George Pickett
#98 Horseshoe Cafe, 1958
#99 Bellingham International Airport Maintenance, 1983
#100 Bellingham YMCA delegation in House chamber, 1949
#101 Empty Mack Truck on Rails at The Bottom of The Incline Waiting To be Rigged & Yarded up The Incline, 1926
#102 Flight School, 1940
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Why do I see a ’60s Thunderbird in this “1940” photo?
