American Steam
by James Williamson
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$2,100
Dimensions
26.000 x 20.000 inches
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Title
American Steam
Artist
James Williamson
Medium
Painting - Pen & Ink Watercolor And Gouache
Description
American steam, the Cities of Bellingham & Fairhaven, Washington State, maritime history.
Pen and ink, watercolor painting by artist James Williamson.
Artist James Williamson, ASMA
Signature Member of the American Society of Marine Artists
Steamboats and steam locomotives.
Excerpts from The Fairhaven Directory dated 1890 - 91.
The word Fairhaven means not only a beautiful, landlocked harbor, but it is synonymous with the word success. An old and trite saying, nothing succeeds like success, is again verified in the marvelous growth of this wonderful city. Bellingham Bay, known to the mariner as the finest sheet of water on the whole coast, and to the native as a home where comfort and luxury were to be had by the taking, furnishes the harbor and dockyard site for the city of Fairhaven. Miles of wharves have already been constructed, nine immense sawmills, one exclusive shingle mill, all employing hundreds of men, and cutting a million board feet of lumber per day in the aggregate. Though Fairhaven is little more than a year and a half old it has several fine hotels, including the Hotel Ven Dome, Montezuma, Great Northern, St. Louis, Elsmere, Davey, Holmberg and the grandest of all the hotels in the great Northwest, The Fairhaven. This vast structure is just completed and furnished at a cost of $150,000. The material used in the construction is produced right here; the stone from the Chuckanut and Fairhaven quarries, the brick from the Fairhaven Brick and Pottery Company's yards, the lumber from her own vast forest, and cut by her own mills. It is furnished by all the modern conveniences - water, electric lights, elevators and steam heaters.
Four banks - two National and two State - do the banking business of the city. Several large wholesale houses furnish goods for a considerable radius, and many factories and machine shops are rapidly springing into existence, at this writing there are a hundred new buildings in process of erection, many of them elegant and costly residences and large mercantile houses. From one thousand to fifteen hundred men are constantly kept employed in clearing, grading and paving the streets, miles of which have already been completed.
Financial Standing: Notwithstanding the fact that nearly one million dollars has already been expended in city improvements, the city is out of debt and has twenty-five thousand dollars in the treasury.
Good Wages: There is no place on the Pacific Slope where labor of any kind, whether skilled or common, brings a better price. Chinese labor is unknown here, not a single celestial having a residence in this part of the country.
Climate: The climate is most equable, the temperature seldom reaching zero in the winter or 90 degrees in the summer. The rainfall is ample, though not much more than thirty inches during the winter, the season when most rain falls. No blizzards, no cyclones nor thunder and lightening. A gentle breeze, following a silently falling rain, cleanses the atmosphere and makes a delightful climate in which to live.
Population: It is carefully estimated from the census, and other means, that the population of Fairhaven and the towns adjoining on the bay is about 12,000. Nearly half of this number may be found within the City of Fairhaven, which a year ago contained only a few hundred souls.
Churches: Fairhaven has seven church organizations, viz: Methodist - Episcopal, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Scandinavian - Methodist, Baptist, Unitarian, Congregational - four of which have handsome church edifices. The others are anticipating the erection of houses of worship in the near future.
Schools: One large school building with an efficient corps of teachers is now furnishing the children with a first-class education. Another school building is being erected to accommodate the rapidly increasing numbers, and before the end of the year still another will be needed to supply room for the 500 pupils.
Valuation: The taxable value of the property in Fairhaven has reached about $10,000,000.
Coal, Iron and Lumber: There are vast coal fields surrounding Fairhaven. The mines now open are the most extensive to be found anywhere. Iron mines are soon to be developed, and the quality of the coal will be sure to attract capitol for large smelting works and machine shops. The inexhaustible supply of timber, so dense that it is almost impenetrable, is already reaching the markets of the world through the ten mammoth mills now in operation.
Railroads: The Great Northern will be pushed to completion from both ends, and Fairhaven is the grand terminus, which alone ensures the future of the city. The Fairhaven and Northern reaches the City of New Westminster the present month (October 1890), and will then connect with the Canadian Pacific. The Fairhaven and Southern, a part of The Great Northern system, already crosses the Seattle and Northern at Woolly Junction.
Commerce With The World: The ships of every nation may be found within our waters. Puget Sound, the great land-locked sea, connected by the Straits Juan de Fuca with the Pacific Ocean, is the Mediterranean of the Western Hemisphere. The vessels and steamers OF THE West Coast ply between Fairhaven, Portland and San Francisco, and all the principle places on the Pacific Coast; while daily lines of steamers ply between Seattle, Tacoma, Port Townsend and Victoria, B. C. It is no uncommon thing to see several vessels at one time at our wharves unloading and loading the merchandise and products of the world.
This space will not permit the tithe of what might be said of this wonderful country, and the fair city of Bellingham Bay, Fairhaven.
Ships Visiting Fairhaven: Fairhaven and Whatcom Ferry, Steamer Mikado; The elegant twin-screw propeller Eastern Oregon; Sternwheeler State of Washington; Sternwheeler Fairhaven; Steamer W. K. Merwin; Steamer Wasco; Sidewheel Steamer Idaho; Sidewheel Steamer Sehome; Steamer Hassalo; Sidewheel Steamer Eliza Anderson; Steamer Premier; Steamer Brick; Steamer Haytien Republic; Steamer Al-Ki.
Fairhaven
One of several old towns on Bellingham Bay which combined to make the present city of Bellingham. It was the southerly portion of the populated area on the bay, and still bears its original name with local old-timers. In the boom days of the 1890s, it was nick-named The Future Metropolis of Puget Sound. Its founder, Daniel J. Harris, named it from a translation of the Indian name, See-see-lich-em, meaning Safe Port or Quiet Place hence fair haven. -from Place Names of Washington by David Hitchman.
Great Northern Railroad and The Terminal Building.
The Terminal Building, so called because of Fairhaven's aspirations to become the Terminal City of The Great Northern Railroad, is the oldest surviving commercial structure in Fairhaven. The 50-foot square, two story, wood frame building was erected in the later months of 1888. The following year the south and west sides of the building were covered with bricks that came from the Orient as ballast in the sailing ships which called regularly at the foot of Harris Street.
The structure has been occupied almost continually. There are two commercial spaces on the first floor, while the second floor has been used as living quarters and offices. Over the years the building has hosted a variety of businesses, including saloons, restaurants, barber shops, billiard parlor, real estate offices, cigar store, drugstores, grocery store and soda shop, ceramics studio, bicycle shop, toy shop, artist and designer studios, legal office and coffee shop. The Terminal Building is structurally sound and has been restored to its 1889 appearance.
Tonys Coffee and Tea Shop: Tony Campbell opened the Fairhaven Tea and Spice Shop in 1971. Located on the first-floor corner space, this business was sold to Michael and Jo Ring in 1975. It again changed hands and in 1977 was acquired by Jo Ann and Bill MacKay. Today, the entire first floor of the building has become one of the most popular meeting places in town, known as Tony's Coffee and Tea Shop. The smell of fresh roasting coffee fills Fairhaven while inside shoppers, Students, business people, artists, writers, musicians, police and firemen meet and mingle while listening to live music.
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October 29th, 2011
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