By Taren Elwick

Photo by Taren Elwick

The Old Town Cafe in Bellingham Washington, is supposedly haunted. The myth goes that the old building, built in the 1880s, held many spirits including a woman who was said to be looking down at the street below from the second floor window. There were also stories about dishes; floating in the air and come crashing down. And, piano music coming up from the restaurant.

Though these have proven to be all but myths, according to Diane Brainard, a cook and the owner of The Old Town Cafe, “well, there’s people, you know there’s kinda vibes…I think probably every place is haunted really.”

The real ghost story is much simpler. In the early 60s the building used to be a hotel where people would stay for a couple months or maybe even years, says Brainard. “It hasn’t happened in awhile, but if you stand back in the kitchen sometimes it smells like cigarette smoke, and just like by the dishwasher..”The reason that it smells like cigarettes in the kitchen is because of who was living upstairs in earlier years.  A guy died smoking in bed and that whole top of the building was burned out,” Brainard says.

The top floor was burned out until about 2000 when they decided to do a remodel. Back in the 1880s when it was first built it was the tallest building in town. Then in about 1889, adults and children were let out of school and paused their work to witness a man leaving Bellingham. Right outside the cafe he was taking off on his journey. His goal being to go around the world in 80 days. Even though he didn’t make it back, it was a momentous occasion for the town of Bellingham and The Old Town Cafe.

Although some people believe that the building used to be a brothel, it was actually everything but. Before it was a Cafe and a hotel it was a mortuary at one point and it also used to be the first and only black owned restaurant in town. “And the crazy thing about that was black people couldn’t eat here but they owned it,” says Brainard.