As you drive up Holly Street, past Old Town you meet the grand steeple and slate roof of St. Paul’s, and enter one of the most sought after neighborhoods in Bellingham, the Columbia Neighborhood.
Columbia is one of Bellingham’s oldest neighborhoods just up the hill from where the first town on Bellingham Bay had its start. Many of the homes here are Victorian in design but there are also a few Craftsman styles to be found. They range from large mansions overlooking the bay to small, elegant homes on narrow tree lined streets. On the northern end of the neighborhood can also be found good selection of well built mid-century homes and in amongst the neighborhood are a few apartment buildings and duplexes. What tends to make Columbia a great neighborhood is not just the classic, well maintained homes and tree lined streets, nor its close location to downtown Bellingham or its neighborhood school, it’s the people that live there that really makes the Columbia a great neighborhood. 
The residents of the Columbia Neighborhood are active in social and community activites and issues. Many families with school age children call Colombia home and this results in a closely connected neighborhood where the kids and parents know each other and cross paths throughout the week.