Ghostly building in downtown Bellingham

Scroll down for pictures of fire in 1976 Western Front.

Top floor burned in the 1970s and has remained vacant ever since. Bottom floor is a tavern. Can you guess which building this is?

Happy Halloween weekend.

Leaving my art class at WWSC (now WWU), I saw a massive column of smoke over downtown Bellingham. Running down the hill past my sister's house, I knocked on Judy's door. She came running also, toward the fire.
Continued below:

Western Front newspaper, November 1976.

Watching from across the street, we got there just as the roof was caving in and a fireball rose to the sky.

Then, Judy started walking back home and I wondered why she was leaving the drama. She said she just remembered leaving her front door wide open as she ran from the house. Went back to shut the door.

I stayed till smoke turned to hissing steam.

Now the embers long cooled, that place sits quietly as downtown Bellingham scurries around it. Few pay attention to those upper floors that are like a carcass left over from that violent event.

Bellingham fire department has a coffee table book of local fires with a picture of this fire also.