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Overview

This notable Gothic Revival Style skyscraper contained an earthquake-tolerant steel frame and some of the earliest fire-resistant gypsum-board wall construction on the Pacific Coast. (See Katie Chase, "National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form: Bellingham Herald Building," accessed 12/01/2015.) The early use of gypsum would not be surprising, as the President of the newspaper chain that owned the Bellingham Herald, Sidney Albert Perkins (1865-1955), was also the Chairman of the Board of the San Francisco-based Standard Gypsum Company. The Bellingham Herald Building's exterior was sheathed in terra cotta tiles, also considered good for fire prevention. The building's Gothic styling was consistent with many important commercial and institutional buildings in the Pacific Northwest and the influential Chicago Tribune Tower completed by Hood and Howells between 1923 and 1925. With its Bellingham Herald electric sign emblazoned on its roof, the newspaper headquarters stood as a constant presence in the city's central business district.

Building History

Owner of the Bellingham Publishing Company, Sidney Albert "Sam" Perkins, commissioned Bellingham architect Frederick Stanley Piper (1883-1950) to design a new, high-rise home for his Bellingham Herald newspaper. At this time, in the wake of the Chicago Tribune tower competition of the early 1920s, newspapers large and small across the US were building modern, steel-frame skyscrapers to mark their central positions in their communities. The building consisted of a six-story block, measuring approximately 137 by 125-feet, joined with a lower one-story portion on its southwest side. The main block's form transitioned from a rectangle at its base to an L-shape on the upper floors. Construction on the Bellingham Herald Building began in mid-1925, completion of its steel frame occurred around 12/1925, and concluded when the newspaper moved into its new offices on 04/11/1926.

Who designed what in the Bellingham HeraldBuilding is not known with specificity. Earl W. Morrison (1889-1955) and Vas Salisbury Stimson (1888-1956) completed some design work on the Bellingham HeraldBuilding. (A project list produced by Spokane architect Glenn Davis, an expert on Morrison's career, indicated his involvement.) Katie Chase, the author of the building's National Register of Historic Places nomination form, stated: "Piper collaborated with architects Earl Wilson Morrison and Van [sic] Salisbury Stimson and engineer W. H. Witt on the design of the Herald Building.xxviii It is unclear whether Piper or Morrison & Stimson were the principal architects on the Herald Building design. In at least one article in the Bellingham Herald, it is mentioned that Piper served as the chief architect, while Morrison & Stimson were responsible for the design of the exterior. Piper is mentioned more frequently in various Bellingham Herald articles referencing the building‘s construction and his name appears as the building‘s architect on a billboard advertising the construction site in historic photographs. However, the scale and ornament of the Herald Building aligns with buildings Morrison & Stimson designed in Everett around the same time – the 8-story Medical and Dental Building (1925) and the 6-story Central Building (1925). An original drawing of the first floor identifies Piper as the architect, but original drawings of the exterior elevations have not been found to definitively prove if Piper or Morrison & Stimson designed the building‘s exterior." (See Katie Chase, "National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form: Bellingham Herald Building," p. 13-14, accessed 12/01/2015.) The unusual name of the Earl Morrison's partner, Vas Stimson, was often misspelled "Van."

It is possible that Piper reached out to the big-city firm of Morrison and Salisbury because the latter had extensive expertise designing modern, high-rise buildings. (Morrison and Stimson split up the year the Herald Building was completed.) These two architectural firms worked with the building contractor, Belanger and Ford. According to the nomination form mentioned above (p. 14), "Belanger & Ford of Seattle were awarded the construction contract with G. J. Wallace of Seattle serving as the superintendent of construction and Larry George as the foreman for steel construction." Seattle engineer W.H. Witt also collaborated on the structural specifications of the tower. Witt's firm would develop into a powerhouse engineering firm, currently known (in 2015) as Magnusson Klemencic Associates.

Building Notes

The National Register of Historic Places nomination form (p. 5) for the Bellingham Herald Building described its first floor: The first floor of the Herald Building includes the ground floor of the six-story office building plus a one-story (with basement) wing that projects from the building‘s southwest elevation. According to the original design, drawn by Frederick Stanley Piper, the first floor included a lobby, a business office (in the east corner of the building), a composing room with a small advertisers office (in the north corner of the building), five storefronts for retail, two vaults, a camera room with accompanying work rooms, and several restroom
facilities. Skylights provided additional daylight in the one-story wing portion of the floor. Flooring materials varied throughout this floor, but included rubber tile (lobby, hallways, and public space in business office), linoleum (business office), cement (vaults), maple (editorial room), terrazzo (restrooms), and even bloxonend
flooring (still present in the former composing room)." (See Katie Chase, "National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form: Bellingham Herald Building," accessed 12/01/2015.) Bloxonend Flooring was a modern, industrially-produced flooring product manufactured by the Carter Bloxonend Flooring Company of Kansas City, MO, consisting of end-grain blocks dovetailed and laminated together into strips. The end grain of the blocks wore well and the flooring system could be laid directy on concrete floors without the use of "...imbedded sleepers, floor strips or subfloors." (See Carter Bloxonend Flooring Advertisement, Factory, vol. XXIX, no. 3. 09/1922, p. 264.)