Photo of Mark Twain during his visit to Bellingham Bay

 Mark Twain arrived on Bellingham Bay on August 14, 1895.  He was on a speaking tour and the event took place at the Lighthouse Building in New Whatcom (now Bellingham).  After the event, Roland Gamwell took Twain to the Fairhaven Hotel, and then proceeded across the street  to the Cascade Club on the top floor of the Mason Block (now Sycamore Square).  The Club was closed, but Gamwell had keys and the two spent the evening enjoying a few glasses of scotch.

 

 

 

 

According to Jeff Jewell, the "Notorious Washington Club was founded on George Washington’s birthday in 1924. Members were a cross-section of Bellingham merchants and professionals that met for merrymaking over Friday lunch in the Fairhaven Hotel. They championed the underdog and roasted the pompous..."    These minutes would have surely contained a record of the hilarious goings on by George E. Finnegan and a number of the "Men of Fairhaven".    Unfortunately the records disappeared from the former bookkeeper and we are hoping they still exist are are found soon!

 

The Washington Club dedicated its new emblem at it's meeting on July 21, 1944 and paid tribue to it's creator, Knute Evertz, the club economist.  At the meeting, Evertz, described as the "most beloved member of the group, was presented with a life membership in the organization, an honor which seldom has been conferred in the history of the club.   This is the second Club bull, as an earlier emblem had gone missing a few weeks earlier.

 

 

 

The original  plaster of paris mold can be found in the Whatcom Museum archives, but the bronze plaque has been lost.  The plaque was another creation by Knute Evertz, who appears in the photo to the left.    In a January 24, 1947 Bellingham Herald article, the committee was appointed to investigate the best location for the plaque in the City's new Bloedel Donovan park at Lake Whatcom.

 

 

 George Finnegan's Aztec Horned Toad by Jeff Jewell

 

"In early 1929, George prepared for construction of his new "Shopping Tower" at 12th and Harris. For the commercial building’s cornerstone, he obtained an "original Aztec horned toad" that was found at an archaeological site "near the Texas border." An exceptionally lethargic metabolism made the toad perfect for placement in the tower’s foundation. Its heart beat at five minute intervals and it only needed to eat once every 50 years.  News got out about Finnegan’s plan to entomb the rare toad and outraged members of the Humane Society gave George a thorough scolding. Finnegan was not beyond compromise and altered the building’s design so that "the Horned Toad was placed on the roof instead of in the cornerstone" to afford the ancient amphibian "a better view of beautiful Bellingham Bay, Mt. Baker and the Islands."
We are not holding our breath for the discovery of George's toad; in reality it existed only in Finnegan's humorous imagination.

 

 

When the police arrived at 11th Street and Harris Avenue on the morning of November 30, someone was filming the event from the offices above Tony's Coffee  (in the Terminal Building).  Tony's (now Old Independent Coffeehouse) was located on the diagonal corner from the former community garden, now occupied by the double-decker bus and Fairhaven Fish and Chips.