You, like me, have likely ridden your car or bike along Eldridge Avenue (turning into Marine Drive), looking at the beautiful houses with impressive views of Bellingham Bay and the San Juan Islands, dreaming of one day making enough money to inhabit a home “like that.”
One always captures my eye in particular, simply because it looks like a castle that appeared in my childhood drawings — the Eldridge Castle. The historic house has a long, circular driveway, green hedges, chimneys and a majestic rotunda.
Edward and Teresa Eldridge arrived in Bellingham in 1853, claimed 320 acres (most of today’s North Bellingham) and opened a lumber mill that would supply San Francisco in the rebuilding of the city, according to the City of Bellingham.
Edward got into teaching and mining and, like many other white men in the 1800s, followed his dream of building a beautiful home for his family (which proceeded to burn down not once, but twice).
In 1926, the couple’s son, Hugh Eldridge, hired noted architect F. Stanley Piper to build the abode in the style of French Chateuesque, which still stands today — unharmed by fire.
The four-bedroom, four-bathroom home was last sold in 2017 and had been on the market for several years, according to Zillow. The Whatcom County Assessor currently values it at about $1.6 million.
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