Avalon Theater Building (Griswold’s – demolished)

Location: 308 4th Ave E
Popular culture

Avalon Theater, 1936, Jeffers photograph. Susan Parish Collection, Southwest Regional Archives

Avalon Theater (Griswold’s) building (2014), Photograph courtesy of Deb Ross

The Avalon Theater was built in 1928, one of several movie theaters in downtown Olympia. The architect was Franklin Cox Stanton, who adopted the Mission style that characterizes much of downtown’s architecture. The photograph at above left, by Vibert Jeffers, was taken in 1936. In later years this was the Griswold Office Supply building, which burned down in 2004. The building was demolished in 2022.

Links to more information:

Olympia Heritage inventory

Cinema Treasures listing

Ed Westman – 9/29/24
Looking Back’s theme for 2024 is Many Streams, celebrating our rich history. Scandinavians began arriving in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1800s, with many working in logging, lumber, and construction industries. In 1921, Swedish-born Ed Westman, pictured here, founded the Olympia Veneer Company, which was a revolutionary experiment in cooperative ownership as well as…
September 29, 2024
Olympia Junk – 9/22/24
Looking Back’s theme for 2024 is Many Streams, celebrating our rich history. The Olympia Junk Company, located at the corner of Legion Way and Columbia, was founded in about 1906 by Jewish entrepreneur Morris Berkowitz, who is likely in this 1914 photograph. It was later purchased by Morris’s in-laws, the Bean family, and became Olympia…
September 22, 2024
Slocum and Yowaluch – 9/15/24
Looking Back’s theme for 2024 is Many Streams, celebrating our rich and diverse history. In about 1881, Squaxin tribal member John Slocum and Louis Yowaluch, pictured here, and their families, co-founded the Indian Shaker church near Mud Bay. The denomination eventually spread to include dozens of churches throughout the Pacific Northwest. The Indian Shaker church…
September 15, 2024