Demolition crews moved in on Bellingham's Roeder School this week, tearing down the 118-year-old building at 1306 Dupont Ave. to clear the way for a 42-home cohousing community. The teardown began the week of Nov. 11, with work expected to wrap up by the end of 2026.
The site at Dupont Avenue was sold by Bellingham Public Schools to 4th Corner Commons, a cohousing community that plans to build 42 one- and two-bedroom private homes opening onto a large shared courtyard, according to Cascadia Daily News. The outlet reports that 4th Corner Commons considered retrofitting the old school before ultimately deciding to demolish it.
That decision traces back to earlier reporting from cascadiadaily.com, which in March described new renderings showing a 42-residence development on Dupont Street and noted that 20 households had signed onto the project at that point. Shelly Parks, quoted in that earlier report, said the cost to seismically retrofit and preserve any of the old building would make the project unaffordable. The March report also said construction was expected to begin in early or spring 2027, with residents able to move in starting in early 2029 — though the station's more recent account instead points to construction of the new community starting in March 2027.
A Building With Roots Back to Bellingham's First Lumber Baron
Roeder School was erected in 1908 on a site that had previously been home to Central High, housed in two wooden clapboard buildings that were moved to make way for the new school. The school took its name from Captain Henry Roeder, who founded Bellingham's first lumber mill, per the same account from Cascadia Daily News.
The building grew over the decades: an addition in 1927 added a gym and larger classroom space, and in 1937 part of the school was converted into administrative office space for the district administration and school board. Roeder served as an elementary school for kindergarten through sixth grade until 1972, when the district hosted a celebration at the school marking its phase-out as a classroom building and its shift to sole use as an administration building, the report notes.
Flooding Forced District Leadership Out in 2024
Bellingham district leadership worked out of the Roeder School building until January 2024, when cold weather burst fire sprinkler pipes inside, flooding the southern half of the main floor and the basement and causing a ceiling to collapse in the school board meeting room. District offices and the school board meeting room were relocated to the new district office in Barkley following the damage. The building is not listed on the city's local register of historic places, the article notes.
Because saving the century-old structure was not economically feasible, 4th Corner Commons had to undergo a process to determine whether the building could be saved, and ultimately committed to salvaging and incorporating what it could into the new community. Facing bricks from the school are being cleaned, stored and repurposed in landscaping for the new development, while trees on the site will be repurposed as much as possible, with larger chunks of wood turned into bowls for the community's common room.
A Plaque and a Sign Survive the Wrecking Ball
Some pieces of the school's history are being preserved outright. 4th Corner Commons saved the sign above the arch on the front of the school, and per Kate Grimm, a Daughters of the American Revolution plaque memorializing Henry Roeder was also saved. A historical commemorative display will include the plaque and be installed somewhere in the new community.
“I hope the display does justice to the old school's history,” Grimm said, according to the outlet's report. The demolition marked the final days of a building that stood watch over Dupont Avenue for more than a century before giving way to Bellingham's newest cohousing experiment.
