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| A Family Picnic at Boulevard Park circa 1980. Photo by Cale Millberry |
The
Boulevard Park in Bellingham is easily a hotspot for locals and tourists. With a
boardwalk, coffee shop, beach and playground, it serves many purposes for the
community.
But
the park hasn’t always been there. The land where the park was built has served
many purposes, being used for everything from a lumber yard to a gas works park.
The Northern end of the park was even built on what once was a landfill.
The
first company to use the land was The Bellingham Bay Gas Company in 1890, which
used the land to produce coal gas that was distributed without Whatcom County
until 1946. They were located on the bluff above where the park is now, and one
of the steel processing tanks is still there, being used as an observation
deck.
This
was followed by The E. K Wood Lumber Company, who in 1900 bought the land while
looking for locations to expand their Wood Mill. The lumber that was waiting to
be processed was stored where the beach is now.
The
first proposal for a park was actually done by Western Washington University
students in the technology department in 1976.
The Proposal received a grant from the InteragencyCommittee for Outdoor Recreation and in early 1980 the park wasbuilt.
Ever
since then, Boulevard Park has been growing and becoming more popular. Currently, Bellingham is working on a $422,079 project to restore the beach to a natural state, replacing the rubble with beach gravel and course sand. More information about the beach improvements can be found at www.cob.org
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