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The Streets of Fairhaven: Protests and a Poem
| On January 14, 1904, Frank Teck, an editor of the Fairhaven Herald and frequent poet summed up the feelings of former Fairhavenites in his poem "For Harris and History."
| "Up Harris" courtesy Fairhaven artist, Ben Man |
For Harris and History Don't crowd Dan Harris off the map for the sake of your A B and C That's a kind of reformation that doesn't appeal to me Don't crowd Dan Harris off the map He's crowded off this earth But he really planned that storied street and gave the town it's birth
Don't push poor Harris out of our town your scheme is out of joint If it doesn't include the historic nod and a bow to dead man's point Aye, give us the new names (if you must) but leave us a page or two Of the rugged past that is welded fast to none who agree with you.
| | When Fairhaven and Whatcom consolidated into a new city of Bellingham at the end of 1903, new street names were one of the many items the City Council had to address.
The "Street Committee" seemed to take this job a little too seriously and decided the South-side streets should be in alphabetical order. That would mean that streets such as..Knox, Columbia, Mill and Harris....would soon be known as Nelson Owen, Parker and Quincy Avenues. To complete the naming scheme, McKenzie would become Randolph and the streets honoring important businessmen from the Fairhaven Land Company would vanish.....Larrabee, Donovan, Cowgill and Wilson would be replaced with Spencer Thurman Upton and Vincent. The South Side of the new City of Bellingham were outraged at these suggestions. A battle played out in the opinion pages of the Bellingham Herald. Before the dust settled, the committee had one more target for their creative naming schemes. The Alleys. Nobble, Robble, Vobble and Zobble Perhaps it was the same members of the committee who decided to get rid of Harris et al, who dreamed up the idea to name the downtown alleys starting with Gobble and Hobble down to Nobble, Robble, Tobble, Vobble and Zobble. | In Happy Valley Ay tank ay ban qute faller, Ay live in Happy Valley. But oter day ay got on toot, Over in Vobble alley Policeman hey cool yoompin in And say "Ay have to gobble you oop, for you ban very drunk, Yoost see how you legs wobble." Now master, ay no drunk at all, Even if ay do bobble, For no man hay ban drunk who say,
Tobble, Robble, Zobble xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-PERU | Someone with less poetic talent than Frank Teck, gave poetry a try. "Peru" attempted to mimic the Scandinavian accent of many of the farmers in Happy Valley at the time. Fortunately the "obbles alleys" never appeared on a Bellingham map, nor thank goodness, did Quincy Avenue. |
08/02/20
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