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1912 balloon aerial view of the Lettered Streets neighborhood looking northwest up Gerard and Irving (Whatcom County Museum)Bellingham Historic Resource Survey

Historic Preservation Northwest was selected by the City of Bellingham to perform their Preserve America grant work for 2008-2009.  The grant is for historic preservation work in the Lettered Streets, South Hill and York neighborhoods.  The project entails the physical description of approximately 2,200 resources, writing short histories on approximately 1,300 resources, and creating three historic districts over a 1-1/2 year period.  Neighborhood involvement is a priority. 

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Current Status

As of 6/26/09, we are editing the histories on the individual resources and pasting them into our database.  We are also working on editing the three historic district nominations.  The nominations were well received at their respective public meetings, June 9-11.  End of the project is in sight, July 31, and within grasp.

Contact Information

Kolby LaBree is the research coordinator for this project.  You may contact her at househist@gmail.com or through our dedicated phone line at 360-778-8953.  

Additional information about the project can be found at the City of Bellingham's website.  

Volunteer Opportunities

A large component of this project is driven by volunteers in the three neighborhoods, plus a few go-getters from outside the neighborhoods.  You can become involved with any number of aspects of the project ranging from:

  •   Writing descriptions of houses 

  •   Researching city directories

  •   Analyzing historic Sanborn fire insurance maps

  •   Photographing alley structures, particularly in York and Lettered Streets

  •   Writing histories on houses

  •   Recording historic trees, particularly in York and South Hill

If you are interested in getting involved with any or all of the project tasks, please contact us by one of the means listed under contact at the top of the page.  The more the merrier!

 

Project Time Line

Below is the time line for Bellingham's Preserve America project current as of 6/23/09:

 

Statistics for the Project

We started the project in January 2008 and have completed as of 7/3/09:

2,208 properties have been photographed and basic information recorded.

3,480 photographs have been taken.

2,458 historic photos have been linked.

537 properties were found to be either post-1960 or not standing.

2,167 properties have physical descriptions written for them.

1,515 resources have histories written on them.

 

Project Status

The "districting worm" was first introduced at the kick-off meeting for the project in February 2008.  Continuing with the model, the following segments of the worm are gradually being filled in as we complete portions of the project.  Note that segments are not to scale according to the amount of work each requires.  If they were to scale, "survey" and "gather history" would fill the screen.  The worm is current as of 6/6/09:  

The following is a series of charts showing completion levels on the various components of the survey as of 6/23/09:

 

Volunteer Downloads

The following files are for download by the volunteers on the Bellingham Historic Resource Survey only.  Some files are small, but some files are quite large, so be sure you look at the file size to the right of the file name before you click on a file.  Right click on the file name and Save Target As, if you would like to save it to your computer.  Otherwise, left click on the file name and a temporary version of the file will display on your screen. 

Most of the files below are in an Adobe Acrobat format (i.e., PDF extension).  If you don't have Adobe Acrobat, you can download it for free from Adobe

 

General:

Lettered Streets map.pdf (628 kb)

Lettered Streets map color.pdf (1.7 mb)

South Hill map.pdf (953 kb)

South Hill map color.pdf (1.3 mb)

York map.pdf (909 kb)

York map color.pdf (1.6 mb)

Donated Labor Form.doc (34 kb)

Sanborns:

Utilization of Sanborns 1940.pdf (4.7 mb)

Sanborn handout.pdf (2.6 mb)

Sanborn map list.pdf (7 kb)

Sanborn map check off sheet.xls (300 kb)

Sanborn map check off sheet.pdf (1.6 mb)

Sanborn map instructions.pdf (1.2 mb)

Original town sites.pdf (206 kb)

Bellingham 1904 Book.pdf (9.8 mb)

Bellingham 1913 Book.pdf (14.3 mb)

Bellingham 1950 Book.pdf (17.0 mb)

City Directories:

Historic Bellingham Neighborhood Street Name Changes.pdf (8 kb)

City Directory handout.pdf (23 kb)

Bellingham city directory 1905 searchable.pdf (23 mb)

Bellingham city directory 1915 searchable.pdf (35 mb)

Firm abbreviations.pdf (406 kb)

General abbreviations.pdf (291 kb)

History Write-ups:

Statement of Significance handout.pdf (38 kb)

How to trace your house history.pdf (143 kb)

Alley Photography:

Alley photo instructions.pdf (85 kb)

Alley photography assignments.pdf (9 kb)

Architectural Survey:

Architectural cheat sheet.pdf (2.1 mb)

Lettered Streets maps.pdf (2.9 mb)

Physical description samples.pdf (17.7 mb)

Workshop sample physical descriptions.pdf (2.7 mb)

Kroll Maps c.1953 (right-click on the file name to download):

Lettered Kroll c1953.jpg (6.9 mb)

South Hill Kroll c1953.jpg (8.1 mb)

York Kroll c1953.jpg (5.6 mb)

 

Press Releases, Articles and Video

February 26, 2008 first public meeting

March 10, 2008 volunteer assignment meeting

April 5, 2008 house and property research

August 2008 Inside Bellingham  (Aug 2008 episode, from 12:15 to 16:30)

August 27, 2008 Historic waterfront buildings - Bellingham Herald

September 29, 2008 Reid Boiler Works - Bellingham Herald

November 3, 2008 Magnolia Court - Bellingham Herald

February 2009 Bellingham Business Journal

 


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