A short history of The Bellingham Herald

More than 100 years ago, in a boomtown on the shores of Bellingham Bay, The Bellingham Herald first went to press. The tri-weekly Fairhaven Herald, as it was then called, began publishing on Monday, March 10, 1890. This was a big boom year in Fairhaven and the deep pockets of Fairhaven Land Co. afforded the fledgling paper with a new two-story building and a flatbed double-rotation cylinder press -- "the best newspaper plant north of Seattle." The first editor was a colorful, outspoken character by the name of William "Lightfoot" Visscher, hired from the Tacoma Globe by entrepreneur Nelson Bennett of the land company. After a celebrated launch of The Herald and a successful conversion to a daily paper, Visscher had a falling out with Bennett, was fired 18 months after he arrived in Fairhaven, and returned to Tacoma.

The Herald went through many changes in early years, including temporary suspension and merger with a weekly. In 1903, the cities around the bay (Sehome, Whatcom and Fair haven) consolidated into the city of Bellingham. It was at this time that the paper first used the name "The Bellingham Herald." The Herald operation endured three moves before settling at its present location in 1926 at the then-newly constructed "Herald Building." The building is now a Bellingham landmark.

In the early days of newspapers in Whatcom County, the editor was often the publisher as well, but as the newspapers evolved, the roles grew apart. There were many who filled these roles over the years but perhaps the most notable was the Sefrit-Carver team under the ownership of Sidney Albert "Sam" Perkins, which began in 1911 and lasted in to the 1950s. William Coston Carver was managing editor from 1912 until 1958 with Frank Sefrit as general manager and editor from 1911 until he died in 1950. Sefrit's legacy succeeded when sons Charles and Ben followed in the senior's footsteps. The lengthy ownership of Perkins, and later his heirs, continued until 1967 when the family sold The Herald to Federated Publications. In 1971 Federated Publications merged with Gannett Co., Inc.

In May, 1997, The Herald made a successful conversion to a morning paper, continuing enhancements in format and extended local news coverage.

McClatchy purchased The Bellingham Herald in June 2006 from Knight Ridder, which had purchased the company from Gannett in 2005.

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