INDUSTRY REPORT: HOTELS
$6 million Waples renovation and Inn revitalizing downtown Lynden By Sherri Huleatt
Billy Waples is a Lynden legend. Born in 1897, he helped bring the railroad and Northwest Washington Fair to Lynden, and he played a vital role in pulling the small community through the Great Depression by extending millions of dollars in credit to local citizens.
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His greatest legacy was the Lynden Department Store. Known as Delft Square, it burned down seven years ago. Today, cranes hover high above downtown Lynden where the historic building is undergoing final touches for reconstructing it, renamed the Waples Mercantile Building and adding another 35 rooms to the booming hotel industry in Whatcom County. The Delft Square store, which opened in 1914, served as the beating heart of the community—offering special events, community meals, and a playground for Billy Waples’ many grandchildren. On that fateful day in 2008 his family and the community watched helplessly as beloved Delft Square burned from the inside out. The fire left the building nearly destroyed, with its roof and much of its interior gone. “To see my grandfather’s dreams disappear was devastating,” said a teary-eyed Judy Judson Waples at a recent Mt.