A New Home for Artists

How one woman turned an old Firehouse into a welcoming space for artists and the community.

photo courtesy of The Firehouse Cafe by Hugh Fogarty

You might find an old man sipping a coffee along with his morning newspaper, a student furiously studying in the corner or a yoga teacher walking briskly with her mat. Maybe all of the above.

It feels like you’re part of a community.

Teresa Dalton, current owner of The Firehouse Cafe, has been operating it as a performing arts center since 2017. The COVID-19 pandemic nearly caused The Firehouse to close. She is now trying to rebuild her business while still prioritizing artists over profits.

The Firehouse Cafe sits on the outskirts of Bellingham’s bustling Fairhaven District. Surrounded by houses, The Firehouse feels like it is part of the neighborhood, rather than just another one of the countless coffee shops that sprout up around Bellingham.

The building will always be important to the Fairhaven community in Bellingham, Washington because of its rich history. According to Whatcom Talk, from 1927 to 2001, The Firehouse Cafe was an operating fire station. In 2002, the city accepted a bid from Matt and Alona Christman to turn the establishment into an arts center. The Christmans operated the Cafe with the mission to create an affordable performing arts space for the community.

But it is not just a cafe, it’s a resource for artists. They offer performance spaces, studios, promotions, content creation and more.

Dalton was a regular at the cafe while the Christmans owned it. When the Christmans decided to sell, Dalton wanted to preserve the community resource, so she purchased the cafe in 2018.

Business declined while the building was on the market because of the uncertainty about future performances. Now, Dalton is trying to spread awareness about The Firehouse so she can get enough business to recreate the bustling arts center it once was.

Dalton had a vision for the future of The Firehouse Cafe: a space for the community to come together. Aside from the restaurant and hangout area, Dalton is trying to improve the business in many ways. Now serving beer and wine, they cater to more of a night-time crowd.

Patrons can go there to learn about the arts from other members of the community. Artists can rent out rooms to give lessons. There are currently teachers running classes in tai chi, yoga, ballet and more. They also have a studio where performers can record and live stream directly to Vimeo’s pay-per-view service.

Linda Henderson is a community member who uses the space to teach tai chi.

She chose The Firehouse because “It has an emotional feeling within its walls…a spirit from the legacy of protecting and saving the community.”

The Fairhaven firefighters used to work and sleep in the same space that the cafe occupies today.

“If you go into the main hall in the far corner… if you open this part of the wall, there is actually a drawing of the city that members of the firefighting squad would use to locate where they had to go to fight the fire.”

In the past, the Firehouse protected the community from fires. Now, it protects the community from falling apart. During quarantine, the neighborhood depended on The Firehouse to keep them connected.

The patrons of The Firehouse hold it in high regard. One student, Diego Heredia, used the space to refocus on school when he was feeling distracted.

“[At the start of the pandemic] I had been doing schoolwork inside my house for weeks and it really started to get me down. Being around people at the Firehouse while doing my homework helped me break that routine and take control of my lifestyle,” said Heredia.

According to a study by the University of Illinois, semi-distracting background noise can actually help people think more creatively and outside the box. By keeping the cafe open during the pandemic, the Firehouse was providing a vital service to the community.

“Throughout the pandemic, the Firehouse really became a hub for saving people. They kept the cafe open. People would come and have coffee or something as a way of safely gathering. Even though classes were not being held, people still came. I think that’s the beauty of the Firehouse. It’s central. It has a long history and Teresa’s done a good job at maintaining the feel and look of the building,” Henderson said..

Despite the setbacks Dalton has faced because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she is constantly coming up with new solutions to the problems she faces. She still, “wants to be able to provide a space at a reasonable price. We are looking at possibly doing more fundraising or something to bring in the income to make up for that Inflation. We can use the money from the fundraising to help supplement the cost. So these performers can still perform here,” Dalton said.

The cafe helps support the arts center, but Dalton is focused on helping her community. She wants to make sure both succeed because, “there’s two businesses here…we have the Firehouse Cafe. and then we also have the performing arts space. The end goal is that both work harmoniously with each other, and that the performing arts side can continue,” Said Dalton.

The arts side is full of logistical challenges for Dalton, but she feels so strongly about providing the artistic community with her services that she continues offering them despite economic hardship.

Keeping the business afloat can be difficult, they always have to walk the line between being passionate and going broke. They’re trying to get back all the performers that canceled their events over the last two years. The performers don’t have any money but want to book a performance. The Firehouse wants to be able to open for the smaller performers to do their performances but costs have increased substantially.

It’s not just the cost of the building holding them back, “it’s the cost of goods, the cost of utilities, cost of employees, employee taxes, I mean, everything, everything went up crazy,” Dalton said.

If all that wasn’t enough, Dalton has plans to add an Airbnb for traveling artists and tourists in the basement.

The business takes up almost all of Dalton’s energy, but she still finds time to put the artists first. The Firehouse Cafe offers dynamic pricing systems that allow the business to stay afloat while staying affordable for artists, with the studio artists are allowed to only cover 50% of the cost, and the rest can be paid for by revenue sharing from the pay-per-view. Pricing models like this allow The Firehouse to cater to artists, but it severely complicates business operations because she has to base pricing around what people can afford to pay rather than her costs.

The creative economy for artists is changing. All the new digital platforms allow artists to independently share their artwork and make money. Business executives can no longer sign creatives to unfair contracts or gate keep them from performances because they can’t afford it. The internet has given artists more power, and as that power grows, companies like The Firehouse Cafe will be the ones flourishing.

The arts are an often undervalued piece of our economy that are just as important in Bellingham as anywhere else in the country.

The National Governors Association has been assembling, “a growing body of research showing how arts-based economic development — already responsible for more than 600,000 jobs in rural states — can help communities to thrive.” They concluded that “the creative sector compliments other industries and can boost the efficacy of state economic development policies, partnerships and plans.”

Dalton is always looking for more ways to put the artists first, because that is the core of her business.

“If you play for donations only then we will not charge. We don’t charge rental for the space. Because, that way, if you don’t make money, we don’t make money,” said Dalton.

She believes in her business so much that she is, “kind of just playing the odds that, if you bring in a good house, they’re gonna buy something to eat or drink, and we’re gonna make our money that way. And then you’re gonna make your money on donations. We don’t take a cut,” Dalton said.

The Firehouse Cafe business business model might be confusing for some people, but Dalton is thriving in her role as a community leader. The way she treats the artists she works with is the way businesses will have to interact with artists in the future, as the economic leverage of artists grows.