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The Protest of November 30, 1972
Southwest corner of 11th and Harris (current location of the double-decker bus)
| Developer Ken Imus had purchased the Mason and Nelson Block by 1972. He also bought the empty lot at the SW corner of 11th and Harris, once occupied by the Blonden Block.
John Blethen used the corner lot for several years as a garden for his Toad Hall restaurant (with permission from the previous owner, Marion Finzell.) | Sven Hoyt, an early supporter of community gardens, started planting there, just prior to his accidental death in July 1972. Emotions were running high. When a bulldozer arrived on November 30th, ready to clear the property, protesters arrived shortly thereafter. Blethen left with a wheelbarrow of precious topsoil and was not involved. More of a skirmish than a riot, the event did result in arrests of the "Fairhaven Seven" who spent over a year in front of several judges at the Bellingham courthouse. Many heated letters to the editor give you a flavor of the times.
By February 1973, Ken Imus had closed beloved Toad Hall in the basement of the Nelson Block. In November 1975, the Western Front reported, "Kulshan Tavern passes on to fond memories". Writer Bob Speed wrote: "The South Side moved closer to death last week when it's heart quit beating and the Kulshan Tavern died." The Kulshan, located in the historic Waldron Block, was described as Bellingham's oldest watering hole and "one of the final gasps of hip tradition which began in the lazy hazy days of the sixties."
The End of the Hippies in Fairhaven John Blethen, former owner of Toad Hall, describes the end of the hippies this way. "One day the hippie movement just ended and now we are going to do something else, now we are going to be making money. Some kind of genetic call. It was very weird. Suddenly there was a core of values shift--people wanted to make money and get on with their lives." According to long-time resident, John Servais, by 1973, Ken had bought most of the buildings, kicked the hippies out and the magic was gone. Most importantly, the military draft had ended, and with that the active opposition to the war ended. With that danger gone, they all got back to living. So Fairhaven went dark, starting in 1973 and did not revive until 1980, when Chuck and Dee Robinson brought energy back with the opening of Village Books in the Knights of Pythias Building.
08/10/20
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