Looking Back’s theme for 2025 featured Thurston County area photographers, artists, and their subjects. Joseph Jeffers grew up in Olympia and took an interest in photography from an early age. In 1913, he commissioned architect Joseph Wohleb to create this studio, at the corner of 4th and Washington, at the same location as his previous studio. This was Wohleb’s first major commission, and still exists.
Joseph Jeffers photo, about 1914, Courtesy State Capital Museum Collection, Washington State Historical Society, catalog C2010.227.7
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2025