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The Towns That Became Bellingham

GB0402.jpg

A view across Bellingham Bay, undated (approximately 1900-1920)

 

Originally, Bellingham was comprised of four smaller towns. From the earliest days of settlement, civic leaders urged the small Bellingham Bay communities to consolidate into one city. In 1853, William Bausman, editor of the first local newspaper, Northern Light, advocated that the budding towns drop their rivalries and unite. In September 1903, representatives from Whatcom and Fairhaven came jointly before the city councils with signed petitions for consolidation "to commence a movement which would make one of the greatest cities on Puget Sound on the shores of Bellingham Bay." The consolidation proposition was offered to the citizens on October 27, 1903, who voted 2759 to 596 to create the city of Bellingham. A new charter for the city was passed in July of 1904.

Click on the links below or above to find out more about the evolution of present-day Bellingham from the former communities or settlements of:

The Towns That Became Bellingham