A multi-family apartment complex will be built on this Bellingham historic site
A historic property in downtown Bellingham’s Sehome Neighborhood will soon be the site of a 16-unit, 4-story, multi-family apartment building.
The 1205 N. Garden St. Apartments will be built north of the main historic home on the site, the J.J. Donovan house, which was constructed in the late 1800s and has served as a boarding house, Western Washington University dormitories and a dentist’s office, according to the city of Bellingham. The house is currently serving as co-op-style apartment living.
However, the rear carriage house on the property will be demolished to make room for the new development.
“Removal of historically significant resources is never easy nor encouraged. However, and in this instance in particular, a balance must be struck between preservation and the demands of infill, affordability and growth,” said Bellingham city planner Emy Scherrer in an email to The Bellingham Herald.
“I hope this project can also illustrate that new development and infill can happen without eliminating existing character and demolishing historically significant structures and sites,” Scherrer said.
The new apartments will be designed to reflect the historic character of the main house and surrounding neighborhood, according to Bellingham-based AVT Consulting, the permit consultant company for the project.
“We spent almost two years working with the city to develop a plan that preserves the J.J. Donovan House,” said AVT’s Ali Taysi in a telephone interview with The Herald. “The entire design of this project is predicated on the preservation of that structure.”
The apartment will have a variety of 2-, 3- and 4-bedroom units with almost 50 bedrooms. The existing J.J. Donovan house will also go through internal renovations and its existing 16 bedrooms will continue to be rented out, AVT told The Herald.
The project will also include 32 on-site parking stalls and a secure bicycle storage facility. AVT Consulting also plans to build out five additional street parking spaces on North Garden Street, construct a new sidewalk and add landscaping with street trees.
“The character of the J.J. Donovan house is described as a Tudor Revival Style home. One of the features of that is a lot of landscaping in front of the building so the proposed building has been designed to match that character — with some variation,” said AVT’s Jack Bloss in a telephone interview with The Herald.
As a condition of the project, salvageable elements from the rear carriage house will be recycled and reused, AVT told The Herald.
The project will break ground in the spring of 2023 and is expected to be completed by the summer of 2024.
John Joseph (J.J.) Donovan came to Bellingham in 1888 as chief engineer of the Fairhaven and Southern Railroad. Donovan planned and mapped the town of Fairhaven. He also constructed its wharves, opened the Skagit River coal mines, and later became chief engineer for the Blue Canyon Coal Mining Company. Donovan also worked in the lumber business and started the Lake Whatcom Logging Company with Julius H. Bloedel and Peter Larson in 1898, which became one of the largest lumber firms in the Northwest by 1913, according to the city of Bellingham.
Bloedel started the construction of the J.J. Donovan house but sold it to Donovan before it was completed.
