When we see old photographs of Olympia, it’s sometimes difficult to nail down what we are looking at. There are two clues in this photograph, which was taken in 1928: the dome of the Legislative Building in the background, and the Foursquare home with its dormer toward the left side of the image. This helps us to see that we are looking westward across 9th Avenue in downtown Olympia, towards Capitol Way. The home with the dormer is the Gibbons House, which still exists on Capitol between 10th and Union and is on the local register. The Texaco and Rogers gasoline stations, as well as the residences along Capitol are long gone.
Vibert Jeffers Photograph, 1928, Susan Parish Collection, Southwest Regional Archives
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian