Bellingham Then & Now: Laube Hotel

The Hotel Laube was a contemporary of the Byron Hotel, (now the Hotel Leo but commonly known as the Leopold); in fact, an ad for the Byron Hotel appears on the same page as the the “Now Open” announcement in the February 3, 1904 edition of the Bellingham paper Reveille.

The year that the Hotel Laube was built (1903) was the same year the towns that had formerly been Sehome, Fairhaven and New Whatcom consolidated to form what we know as Bellingham today. In national news, Orville and Wilbur Wright took their first flight in Kitty Hawk, Ford produced their first Model A, the Red Sox won the first World Series, and the first Tour de France was held. 

The twenty years between 1890 and 1910 were a time of economic turmoil followed by recovery and booming business for Whatcom County.

Salmon, lumber, and hardware wholesaling all played a part in amping up the economic growth of the area. These were supported by strong transportation capabilities via water and rail. Shipping to the deep dock at the end of Dock St (now Cornwall Avenue) and multiple railways running around Lake Whatcom and up to Blaine and the Fraser valley via Sumas made access to the area easy. 

“The building boom was fueled by the rapid growth of the salmon packing business, the growth of the lumber industry and the primary position Bellingham had gained as the main hardware wholesaler for a large area.” (source)

By 1905, Pacific Alaska Fisheries had become the largest salmon packing company worldwide, and Bellingham Bay also hosted the largest shingle mill in the world.  In this time period, the center of business activity shifted northward from Fairhaven to the State Streets and Forest Streets of the Sehome district.

I noticed a corollary from the past houses in this Then & Now blog series.  Some of the vintage houses & commercial buildings that were built in the 1890s are in South Hill and Fairhaven (Gamwell, Morse, Wardner, Sycamore Square), while the ones built soon after the turn of the century lean towards State St and Garden St, or even further north (Montague, Morse Hardware, Laube Hotel, the Leopold [albeit 1899]).

Two notable mentions: Alfred Black was the first mayor of the consolidated Bellingham and built his house on the border line in 1903, and JJ Donovan’s house on N Garden was originally built in 1890 but he bought and refinished it closer to 1908. 

Next up on Bellingham Then & Now: Frances Cleveland Axtell served in state Congress and also hand-carved mantelpieces for her home. 

Previously on Bellingham Then & Now: the railroad history of Whatcom County has its ups and downs - and water fights too.

Sources

“Washington MPS Hotel Laube.” National Archives Catalog. Link.

“Laube Hotel”. City of Bellingham. Link.

Images

Then: “Laube Hotel”. City of Bellingham. Link.

Now: Cooper Hansley

Blog copy by Tiffany Holden