Bellingham Then & Now: Great Northern Railroad Passenger Station (D St)

The passenger station at the base of D St has been standing since its construction in 1927. It replaced a brick depot that had been built in 1902, and this new building offered space for passengers and a much more attractive facade. Architect F. Stanley Piper included Spanish elements and wrought iron chandeliers in his design. 

The source material for these blog posts - the City of Bellingham Historic Buildings page and the National Archives historic register - sometimes hold a lot of information about the significance of a particular building. This particular one has an incredible amount of factual data on the building itself, but little about the early passengers or people involved in its construction. 

On the other hand, there’s a wonderful outline of the history behind railroad access and development to and through Whatcom County, with stories, dates, and anecdotes. 

Because real history is rarely dry. History textbooks are by necessity (or convention) primarily an outline of names, dates and places, spanning hundreds or thousands of years. Sidebars and pop-out boxes sometimes highlight an individual or a fun fact, or a particular story, but due to the sheer volume, certain narratives become artificially straightforward. 

Except that reality is rarely straightforward. Every day, every home purchase, every stage in life has its own stories, sub-stories, and individual experiences. 

The story of bringing intercontinental and international railway access to Whatcom County is one rife with ego, competition, speculation, losses, and the antics of local boosters (like James Wardner) desperate to succeed in making Fairhaven and the Bellingham Bay area a transportation hub.

Just a decade after Roeder and Peabody arrived in the area, talk increased about running a railway line to Bellingham. 

“In 1869 Jay Cooke of the Northern Pacific railroad, negotiated a $50 million loan on a German Bank with apparently firm connections of constructing a line that would ultimately reach Bellingham. The French and German War forced the bank to dissolve the agreement, and with further complications the company was forced to decide upon a less ambitious route. Real estate values in Bellingham fell drastically, ruining many speculators.” (source)

Later on, J.J. Donovan engineered the Fairhaven & South Railway, and the line that eventually connected Bellingham to Blaine and linked to the Canadian Railway. But while plans were still  tentative, hopes rose like hot air, to the point where the local paper Reveille wrote:

“...in ten years time there will be little difference between the two cities (Bellingham and New York), that New York lacks coal, timber and gold, which Bellingham has and that New York’s advantage is only that of age, which Bellingham Bay will rapidly overcome.” (source)

And the two locomotives owned by the railway boosters were reportedly used primarily to “run back and forth on two or three miles of track whistling and blowing off steam to impress the [prospective investors].” (source)

In 1891, a connection with the Canadian Pacific via Sumas was completed, with a celebration when the first train arrived, full of important guests. But even this did not go smoothly.

“Participating rival fire fighters started a water fight. The long-awaited train blundered in between, and the force of water from the firehoses smashed in windows, drenching the dignitaries.” (source)

So while we don’t have much data on how Stanley Piper designed the building, or the story behind the George Moon Construction Company that built it, or the cultural background of the women’s lounge originally housed in the northwest wing, we do see an example of the micro developments (and straight-up crazy stuff) that any large operation has to overcome on its way to becoming a success.

Changes take time, and changes have a lot of boring but important moving parts, like the wheels of a steam engine. There can be plenty of smoke and a whole heck of a lot of whistles, but until those coupling rods are chugging and the wheels are turning...that train isn’t going anywhere.

Next up on Bellingham Then & Now: the center of economic power in the Bellingham Bay area shifted northward around the turn of the century.

Previously on Bellingham Then & Now: The first wedding at St. Paul’s Church was between Lottie Tuttle Roeder and Charles Roth. 

Sources

“Washington SP Great Northern Passenger Station” National Archives Catalog. Link.

Then: “Great Northern Railroad”. City of Bellingham. Link.

Images

Then: “Great Northern Railroad.” City of Bellingham. Link.

Now: Cooper Hansley

Blog copy by Tiffany Holden