Signs and Lines

Remember the pocket garden behind the YMCA? If you were standing there, looking at what's in bloom now, rather than in April, and turned your head to the left, you'd see today's blip.

This photo doesn't show the entire building -- I focused in on the power lines, for chaiselongue, and the "ghost signs" advertising chewing tobacco and a soft drink that is known the world over.

The building housed the Laube Hotel, built in 1903, which offered 50 guest rooms and an excellent restaurant in its heyday. In later years it became rundown, but after an extensive renovation in 2008, the Laube Hotel now offers 16 studio (one room) apartments and four one-bedroom apartments at affordable rents to low income households, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

I'm glad that old buildings like this one are being reused, giving a sense of history to Bellingham's downtown core.