You can now rent this piece of history in downtown Bellingham

The two-story brick building has been standing at 1308 E St. for more than one hundred years. To Bellingham locals, it was known as the Old Territorial Courthouse.

Few knew that it was also the oldest brick building in the state of Washington.

The old courthouse is now owned by Rick Tremaine, who bought it in March 2018, from the Whatcom County Historical Society, which had owned it since 2004.

Tremaine bought it into family company to retain ownership for future generations and is now renting it out for events.

“This building is 160 years old, and I want to make sure it lasts at least another 160 years,” Tremaine said.

The earliest days of the building date back to 1858, when it was used as the provisions store for the gold rush. The next year, the Canadian government required that people get permits from Victoria, B.C., to mine for gold. A wave of people then left Bellingham, and the store had difficulty making it. In 1863 the building was sold to the county, which later turned it into a courthouse.

The building’s days as a courthouse ended in 1888. It was later taken care of by different owners, including the Akers family, who put Akers Taxidermy in the building. They donated it to Whatcom County Historical Society in 2004.

The old courthouse days shaped the brick building into what it is, according to Tremaine, who led an eight-year-long restoration to repair the building to what it looks like now.

The building was once in very bad condition. Corners of the building were failing out. Rain was leaking from the roof. Tremaine and Whatcom County Historical Society volunteers had to take down parts of the building brick by brick and then rebuild it.

“We spent over $200,000 on repointing the brick and just taking care of the brick structure,” Tremaine said. “It’s a little bit of a money pit in that historical structures need constant maintenance.”

Tremaine studied history in college and had done construction work before he retired from a banking career. “That’s why construction, architecture, buildings are important to me,” Tremaine said. “When I put those things together, this is an important structure that needs to be preserved. That’s why I am so passionate about preserving it for as long as we can.”

Some walls are of exposed brick in an effort by Tremaine to recreate the building’s old courthouse days.

“It just makes more sense to me to just leave it the way that it was 160 years ago, so that when people come in here, they actually can see something in the building exactly the way it was,” Tremaine said.

Both floors in the building are open for rentals. The second floor costs about $45 an hour, and the first floor $35. For rental details, reach Tremaine at 360-319-0065 or at ricktremaine@gmail.com.