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The Kulshan Clubhouse Big Move: The Hidden Historic Building
A Kulshan Club member returning from the past might have a hard time locating the most hidden of Fairhaven’s historic buildings. Here’s why. The club house was originally located on 12th Street directly across from the Fairhaven Carnegie Library as can be seen in the photo to the right, taken before 1935.
| Whatcom Museum Photo Archives #1996.01.885
| Early 1930s photo of original Clubhouse location on 12th St.
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According to Whatcom Museum Photo Historian Jeff Jewell, in 1935 a short section of road was constructed immediately north of the business district on 12th Street to connect to the major arterial from downtown Bellingham. (This new connector would be named "Finnegan Way” in 1945 after Kulshan Club member and beloved Fairhaven Pharmacy owner George Finnegan.)
To accommodate the new roadway, the clubhouse was forced to move from its original location on 12th to the property between 11th Street and newly formed Finnegan Way. Gordon Tweit remembers hearing that round timbers were placed underneath the building which was then rolled directly west.
A small piece of the original Kulshan Club’s property between Finnegan Way and the Fairhaven Carnegie Library is now the site of the Flagpole Veterans Project; a joint effort of the Old Fairhaven Association and Joel Douglas. The flagpole today sits not far from the original flagpole of the Kulshan Club of 1909. Years after the Kulshan Clubhouse was moved, new buildings were constructed to the North and South, obscuring the view to this beautifully designed structure. From Finnegan’s Way it appears to be one-story; on the opposite end, on 11th Street, the two-story building is unimpressive and easy to ignore. Neither view provides clues to the beauty of this building that once graced a hilltop in Fairhaven.
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