Barnes Bank and Site of Roxie Moore’s Saloon

Location: 114-118 Capitol Way N
Downtown National Historic District

118 N. Capitol, Roxie Moore’s saloon, as it appeared in 1880-1890, photograph courtesy of Washington State Historical Society

Barnes Bank Building, 114 N. Capitol, today (2012), Photograph courtesy of Deb Ross

The brick building seen at upper right is the Barnes Bank building. George Barnes was a very early arrival to Olympia and established the first mercantile business here. In about 1869 he built this building, the oldest brick building in Olympia and, some say, the first. For some time, it was the location of the Sportsman’s Headquarters store, and sustained damage in the 1949 earthquake. The bank is located in the National Downtown Historic District.

Just to the north of the Barnes Bank building was the Roxie Moore saloon, pictured at above left. This building was razed at some unknown date before 1949. (The Daily Olympian building added an extension in the 1950s into the space formerly occupied by the saloon, so that it now abuts the Barnes Bank Building.) According to notes on this image, one of the figures is P.D. Moore, prominent Olympia citizen.

For information about this photograph, and identification of the people in it, enter the following catalog numbers in the Washington State Historical Society’s collection search box: C1956.20.9; 2013.23.3 (earthquake damage, Barnes Bank building)

Olympia Heritage inventory (Barnes Bank building)

National Downtown Historic District

For more information on George Barnes, see Site of the George Barnes Home, as well as the Residents section of this website