Published at WhatcomTalk. On June 14, , a Bellingham woman known as Joy Stokes died at age In her will, she left an alleged six-figure sum not to surviving family, but to Western Washington University. Stokes had owned several apartment complexes in Bellingham, and also managed a lively roadhouse just beyond the city limits.
Even so, it seemed a large amount of money for someone who came from modest means. There was even a rumor she was possibly responsible for the death of her ex-husband. While modern Bellingham is rife with breweries and dispensaries, it once boasted a real red light district.
Its city charter even established boundaries for a red-light district. Starting at the intersection of Holly and Bay Streets, and continuing down Holly to C Street, brothels stood catering to lonely or randy men, many of them transient workers attracted to the area through industries like logging.
Until around , downtown Bellingham was home to brothels, many located on the upper floors of cheap hotels and apartments. In the decade that followed, both Mary and her family became local scofflaws. Her father operated a still hidden inside a chicken coup, and her brothers also engaged in bootlegging. He spent most of his life there as a fur trader. She was also part of the divorce trial of William Lang, a man who supposedly financed the impressive home Stokes and her husband lived in at North Forest Street.
But there are hints. Stokes did well for herself after divorcing her husband. That same year, she began managing the Winter Garden, a post-Prohibition roadhouse located five miles outside Bellingham, where Slater Road intersected Old Highway The Winter Garden had live music, dancing, and drinking, but it was rumored Stokes ran a brothel upstairs.
