Whatcom Museum of History and Art

The museum is awesome, very well preserved/​restored. It is worth the price of admission to go in and imagine this as the most important building in the city back in the early 1900s. It Has been extensively restored so it’s unlikely that the furnishings that you see in the building now were around very long ago, but you can bet that the building is up to current code and it will be here for many years into the future because of those extensive renovations. The exterior of the building is simply amazing: it is so rare to see a building so old look so good.
Because rooms were generally smaller back in the day, the building serves it’s purpose as a museum well because there are many small rooms with different exhibits and fewer huge rooms with echoing sound. When I went, there was an exhibit of photography from Whatcom County’s early logging industry. My favorite part of the museum was on the first floor where there are huge panoramic paintings of Bellingham from very very very long ago.

If you are going to come here, go on a Thursday when it is $ 5 admission. the museum is fun, but mostly consists of photographs and a large collection of clocks, except the Syre Education Center, which has some artifacts and huge collection of taxidermy birds (which was pretty cool for a bird watcher like me). We didn’t make it to the Lightcatcher building, but the 2 buildings we saw were worth our $ 5 and 2 hours time.
Note for Disabled: I’m not sure how a wheelchair can get into the Old City Hall building, but I am sure they have a disabled entrance. Front steps are steep and hard to navigate, but building interior is completely accessible. Street parking only.

As an adult, I’m so happy they saved the Old City Hall and converted it into a museum. Old City Hall is one of three locations the Whatcom Museum operates. When I was a child, my parents helped by donating to the effort to refurbish the building. One of the things they did was in 1992 (I think) to celebrate the 100^th anniversary, the museum society (or historical society) had people donate money to get their name (s) engraved on bricks. The bricks were then laid outside the Syre Education Center which is part of the Museum (adjacent to City Hall). Old City Hall has been converted into a permanent (I believe) exhibit about the history of the area –Whatcom County and Bellingham Bay.

When I moved to Bellingham from Seattle back in 2005 one of the big attractions about the move was the Whatcom Muesum of History and Art. Depending on what your reason is for visiting, one thing to keep in mind is that there are always new things happening here, and pay attention to timing your visits with exhibitions that might suit your mood/​personality/​interests best.
The museum houses 3 buildings each with it’s own separate purpose. Old City Hall is what most people think of when they think of this place, but there is also the Syre Educational Center next door, as well as the brand new Lightcatcher building.
What I really admire about the museum is its dedicated staff, mostly volunteers, who work hard to bring Whatcom County’s history to light, introducing young and old alike through various exhibits including their vast photo archive.
I also admire the efforts of the museum to showcase work by talented local and regional artists.

The Whatcom Museum is a good, positive place to visit, if in Bellingham.
The Whatcom Museum is actually two buildings — the Old City Hall, and the Lightcatcher Building.
The Old City Hall has more artifacts, and is a more interesting building to visit. The top floor is a little dull, though, it’s fun to overlook [what I assume to be] the old Council Chambers.
The main level has some cool stuff, like an old, functioning traffic signal, and other things of the time.
The Lightcatcher Building has some photos from the past, a green roof, an art gallery, and then an exhibit or two. It’s nothing special.
The Whatcom Museum is a good place to visit, and bottom line, while not extremely entertaining, I recommend it.