Bellingham Then & Now: The Eldridge Mansion

“the estate was given the Chinook name Nesika Illihe, meaning ‘our land’.” (source)

While today’s house is a full generation younger than most of the houses that have been featured in this series (Gamwell, Morse, Wardner & Montague), its roots stretch all the way back to 1853, when the first white settlers came to the area known as “What-Coom”.

Edward Eldridge made his way to Bellingham with Captain Henry Roeder, in their exploratory quest for a lumber mill site to supply San Francisco. (Eldridge’s daughter, Isabella, was the first known white child to reside in this area.) He started the lumber mill but eventually switched to the mining industry, along with teaching, and later became the first legislator out of Whatcom County. He held progressive views for his day, at least as regards women’s suffrage in 1873, as scholars have noted: 

“Dr. T.A. Larson remarks in a paper on Pioneer Women in the West “Edward Eldridge seems to have been unique when he argued in the Washington legislature in 1873 that the imminent disappearance of the frontier made woman suffrage imperative.”” (source)

He remained an influential local figure until his death in 1892.

The first family home on the Eldridge Homesite burned down in 1878, and a mansion (pictured here) was built in its place in 1891, lasting only a few years until its destruction by forest fire in 1894. 

The home we know as the Eldridge Mansion today was built in 1926 for Edward Eldridge’s son, Hugh, the Bellingham postmaster at the time. Active in local politics like his father,  Hugh desired a home worthy of a county squire: palatial to reflect his standing in the community, yet practical for the comings and goings of daily life. To accomplish the vision, Hugh Eldridge commissioned local star architect of the time, F. Stanley Piper. 

“To fully appreciate the design and structure today, one must understand that Piper’s task was to create a stylish new estate centerpiece on the site where a lineage of ancestral mansions had stood. On the site there had “always been one of the most impressive mansions in the state” and it was his responsibility to replace a landmark.” (source)

English born, Piper had immigrated to Seattle in 1907 at the age of 24 and later formed his own Bellingham company. He played a significant role in the development of Bellingham, designing many public buildings still in use today, including:

• Bellingham Herald Building

• St. Paul’s Church

• Bellingham Country Club

• National Bellingham Bank Building (101-111 East Holly)

• Great Northern train station (D Street)

• St. Luke’s (at 809 E. Chestnut; now part of St. Joseph’s)

These buildings reflect disparate styles from other eras - Tudor, Art Deco, Mission, and Chateauesque- the style the architect chose for this new mansion. Chateauesque was a revival style popular in the US between 1860 and 1910, and reflects characteristics of the French chateaux of the 1500s.

Sometimes called French Eclectic, Chateauesque is visible the Eldridge Mansion’s round tower with its conical roof, and the steeply pitched main roof. At around 4,400 square feet, the mansion looks out over Eldridge Bluff toward Bellingham Bay.

“The setting is very much like a country manor, and a remarkably appropriate effect is present even through the manion is within an urban area and adjacent to an historic district made up entirely of northwest Victorian style homes.” (source)

Sources

“Chateauesque Style 1860-1910”. Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. Link.

“Eldridge Homesite and Mansion”. National Archives Catalog. Link.

“Edward Eldridge Homesite (2915 Eldridge Avenue)”. City of Bellingham Historic Buildings. Link.

Images

Then: “Eldridge Homesite and Mansion”. National Archives Catalog. Link. 1982.

Now: Cooper Hansley

Blog copy by Tiffany Holden