South Hill history hike

Do we look frozen?

Today, we were treated to a cold but fun hike in the South Hill area of Bellingham. One of our members, John, grew up in the area and showed the eighteen of us what the area looked like over the past century or so. We started at Boulevard Park, seen above, with sunny but frigid weather (around 27°F). We were all bundled up and set out from here uphill (which nobody minded, as it warmed us), into the Taylor Dock area. We made several side excursions to see different sites of historical interest. We learned about why the streets in Bellingham are so skewed: the remnants of four cities.

Bellingham was officially incorporated on December 28, 1903, as a result of the incremental consolidation of the four towns initially situated on the east of Bellingham Bay during the final decade of the 19th Century. Whatcom is today's "Old Town" area and was founded with Roeder's Mill in 1852.

John showed us where the home he grew up used to be, which is now condos and apartments. He played in the area and told us that the current beautiful Bellingham Bay was, at one time, a dump. No, really: a place where old dilapidated buildings and homes were just dumped, along with lots of other detritus. He said that it smelled so bad that if he and his friends played near there, they had to bake a bath before they were allowed into the house. And now it's just beautiful. Hard to imagine.

We made our way up the Taylor hill and saw the elementary school where John went, and it's still filled with students, playing outside in the cold, some with short sleeves and sandals! 

Old pictures from the early 20th century

John had some pictures that showed what the area looked like long ago. That's John with some of them, which I captured with my cellphone, but they aren't very good, so I'll skip trying to show you. We did compare them with today's landscape, which chronicles incredible change. We walked up a street where we met a truly interesting person, Brian Griffin, who showed us his garage where he builds ukuleles, and much more. That article gives you a good synopsis of his many talents.

Then when we reached the top of the Taylor Hill, we headed to Western Washington University, which I learned was once simply a teachers' college. His parents and he himself graduated from there. We also saw the town's original hospital, where he was born. I cannot even imagine living one's whole life in one area, since I've done so much moving around, not just growing up, but afterwards as well.

Our lunch spot

After finding and making use of the bathrooms in the main university campus area, we stopped for lunch. It was still bright and sunny, and it had warmed from cold to almost bearable, but nobody was shedding much clothing, as you can see here. For such a cold day, we had a really good time, and I learned so much about the history of my adopted home town. Thank you, John, for everything you shared, making the time we had today a memorable one.

:-)