Twain had a bad cold and his throat was in poor condition, but he lectured at the Lighthouse Theater, the fourth floor of a building with no fire escapes.
The Cascadia Daily News, in an article about a Mark Twain statute sitting on a park bench, reports he stayed at The Fairhaven, a Victorian Hotel that was at 12th and Harris. The statute is one of Gary Price's Mark Twain III.
From Fatout (p 251): At the small town of New Whatcom an indifferent crowd kept straggling in until nine-thirty, to the great annoyance of the speaker. The Reveille said on the 16th: “He probably never told his stories more effectively, though a New Whatcom audience is not . . . enthusiastic over humorous lectures, and would boycott Bill Nye were he to reappear.” That is another comment on the lukewarm response to humor in a western country where humor was supposed to flourish. Nevertheless, people were so eager to meet the distinguished visitor that at the reception afterward a mob surged in. Mark Twain, instead of allowing the long queue to file by him, moved along the line shaking hands like a political candidate.