It’s not an everyday occurrence that one finds an old streetcar sitting out in the open.
Located at the corner of West Holly and E streets is a restored 1924 Birney streetcar that operated in Bellingham 100 years ago.
Electrical engineer Charles Birney first introduced this streetcar model to Bellingham in 1916, replacing all of the single-truck trolleys that ran throughout the city, Whatcom Museum archivist Jeff Jewell said.
Streetcar lines spanned across neighborhoods, from Donovan Avenue to East North Street. These earlier routes gave rise to “streetcar suburbs,” a term used to describe the residential neighborhoods that emerged from these lines, Jewell explained.
Jewell learned a few weeks ago from Brad Parberry, the owner of the Helen Loggie Museum of Art, that the trolley will move into the museum after the construction of the Courthouse Plaza is complete by the middle of September.
“It was kind of a model that people look at now and go ‘Gee, that was pretty brilliant!’” Jewell said. “It was pre-automotive, so there really wasn’t an alternative.”
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Olivia Capriotti is a Dow Jones summer news intern, specializing in data journalism. Reach her at oliviacapriotti@cascadiadaily.com.
