Peoples Bank sponsors farm pavilion

Free admission days come to Northwest Washington Fair

LYNDEN — Each August, Lynden is host to Whatcom County’s largest multi-day event, the Northwest Washington Fair.

For many residents, the fair is a celebration of community, the region’s agricultural heritage, and all that is wonderful about summer.

And it’s no di erent for Peoples Bank, which like the fair, has been a part of the Lynden and Whatcom County community for more than a century.

New this year, Peoples Bank is serving as a sponsor in two capacities: o ering a free admission day on Aug. 13, and as the sponsor of the fairgrounds’ newest building, the Peoples Bank Farm Pavilion.

Located just inside the main fairgrounds gate along Front Street, the spacious, high-ceilinged pavilion has 9,500 square feet of rentable space and is complete with restrooms, heat and air conditioning.

Peoples Bank will sponsor free admission day on Aug. 13 and will also sponsor the fairgrounds’ newest building, the Peoples Bank Farm Pavilion.

Connecting to Community

Bob Fraser, commercial market leader at Peoples Bank’s Lynden Financial Center, says putting the bank’s name on the farm pavilion associates it with the fair’s outstanding reputation.

“We’re both iconic institutions,” he says. “We’re known for our integrity and values, and we’re dedicated to making a long-term investment in the community.”

Sponsoring the farm pavilion also means helping promote the fundamental importance of agriculture and ag literacy.

“ at underlies everything that the fair does,” Fraser says. “It celebrates our agricultural community and recognizes the importance of agriculture as it impacts the quality of our lives.” e connection that many residents have to the fair is also a generational one. e family of Karen Kildall Occhiogrosso, the fair’s director of sponsorships, has long been involved with the agricultural aspect of the fair.

“My grandfather showed cows here,” she says. “My dad showed cows here. I was a 4-H member, and my kids were 4-H and FFA members. I know many people have similar stories.”

Mary Compton, branch manager of the Peoples Bank Lynden Financial Center, also has fond memories of showing farm animals during her childhood. Many of the bank’s current employees and customers also share that connection, whether it’s in having exhibited animals, owers, vegetables, quilts, photographs, or assorted hobby collections.

Even the late country music legend Loretta Lynn won a blue ribbon for canning at the fair decades before returning as an entertainer.

Over the years, incredible performers have graced the fair’s grandstand. Everyone from Johnny Cash and Garth Brooks, to Huey Lewis and “Weird Al” Yankovic.

While the fair has traditionally lasted a week, it expanded to a 10-day event in 2021, which continues this year when the fair will run from Aug. 10-19.

“Extending the length of the fair to 10 days has enabled us to provide so many more opportunities to the community,” says Selena Burgess, manager of the Northwest Washington Fair. “We are very excited to open our gates, gather together and celebrate the end of summer.” at day from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. at Gates 1 and 5, anyone who donates four food items to bene t the Whatcom County Food Bank Network will get in free. Canned proteins, fruits and vegetables, and dried beans and pasta are the most needed items.

Free admission days is year, Peoples Bank will o er free admission to all community members at Gates 1 and 5 on Sunday, Aug. 13 from 9-11 a.m. is is just one of a series of free admission days, including those for military members past and present, rst responders, and children ages 12 and under. Reduced gate admission will also be available for Western Washington University students, sta , faculty and alumni on Aug. 17.

Occhiogrosso says they especially hope for a strong turnout for Food Drive Friday on Aug. 11.

With all this in mind, this year’s Northwest Washington Fair should be an absolute blast, while also reminding all of us of the importance of community ties.

“We are proud of who we are, what we do, and what we celebrate,” Occhiogrosso says.

“ e Northwest Washington Fair celebrates the talents of our entire community.”

Demolishing Northwest Annex would be a tragic loss

By Tom Heuser

“I am a professional historian who has studied the former Whatcom County Poor Farm extensively.

The Farm’s main building, now Northwest Annex, is a deeply significant historic resource that the County wants to demolish.

Its association with and contributions to the county and state’s outstanding agricultural and architectural legacy, as well as its community development and social welfare, tell a rich and layered story and because of this, the building must be preserved.

When the building was constructed in 1927, Whatcom County as a whole was the largest producer of poultry and dairy in the state.

As the central building from which the Whatcom County government (with the help of its poor residents), operated its own farm with a multitude of cows and chickens, Northwest Annex is directly associated with and contributed to the county’s agricultural development and dominance.

For decades, the North Bellingham community saw the Poor Farm as a focal point and defined itself by its presence. Local sports teams adopted Poor Farm into their names and surrounding property owners described the location of their farms in reference to the Poor Farm.

Social groups such as the North Bellingham Grange along with local churches either advocated for the building’s design and later improvements, and/or brought services, entertainment, and sundries to its residents.

The history of the county and state’s welfare and medical practices also shines through.

When constructed, major reforms were sweeping through the field of public charity and welfare resulting in the construction of larger and cleaner spaces with more amenities and better medical services all across the state during the 1920s.

Among these, Northwest Annex was initially compared to a vacation resort and highly sought out. It then went on to be a vitally important place of refuge and care for the increasing number poor residents during the Great Depression, when few other options existed.

The building is also an outstanding and likely the largest scale example of a Tudor Revival style building in the Bellingham area, designed by the area’s most prolific early twentieth century architect, F. Stanley Piper.

As an expert designer whose mastery of and predilection for the Tudor Revival style defined his career, the Whatcom County Poor Farm building is arguably his greatest expression of the style in terms of its scale and is therefore one of his most outstanding achievements.

The building also retains sufficient integrity as a Tudor Revival structure with its decorative half-timbering, steeply pitched roof with crossing and overlapping gables and leaded-glass chapel windows with Tudor Gothic arches among other intact details.

To conclude, Northwest Annex is exceedingly historically significant by multiple measures.

It is also one of the few remaining poor farm buildings in the state, making it vitally important to telling multiple aspects of the state’s history.

During the time Northwest Annex functioned as an institution of public welfare, the community deeply respected, and closely identified with it. Demolishing it would be a tragic loss to our heritage.”