By: Abbey Raynes
The Waterfront Tavern: you may have heard of it. Known as the “Killer Bar” or “Roughest Bar in America”, Bellingham’s own “Waterfront: Seafood & Bar” has a reputation for being a temporary lodging to three of some of America’s most notorious serial killers, Ted Bundy, the Hillside Strangler–Kenneth Bianchi, and D.C sniper John Muhammed.
Although some of these stories are contested to be urban myths, the Waterfront Tavern still remains to be a spooky place since the 1970s when a couple of these individuals were “spotted” and seen, all the way up to the early 2000’s with the most recent serial killer appearance.
Located in old downtown Bellingham on Holly Street, “The building is the last one on pilings from the late 1800s and early 1900s, when Old Town was pretty much a town built over water,” according to the Bellingham Herald. Not only is this restaurant a historic landmark that displays Bellingham’s earliest foundations, its past has turned into a convoluted tale that reveals a dark history.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/29/us/retracing-a-trail-the-suspects-trail-2-bud-and-a-bundy-for-every-bar-stool.html
https://www.esquire.com/food-drink/a657/esq0903-sep-travel/
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Suspect-frequented-same-bar-as-Bundy-Hillside-2759278.php
http://www.seattlebars.org/2017/04/2516-waterfront-tavern-bellingham-wa.html
https://bellinghistory.com/blog/2020/12/30/bellinghams-serial-killer-barthe-boiler-body
https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article22197615.html