Looking Back’s theme for 2026 is Downtown by the Decades. On February 28, 2001, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the Puget Sound region, creating massive infrastructure damage in Olympia and elsewhere. This photograph shows the damage to the Olympia National Bank building at 5th and Capitol.
Steve Bloom photo 2001, Olympian archives
Looking Back’s theme for 2026 is Downtown by the Decades. In 1991, Olympia become the first small town outside of Seattle to host a Pride event. The organizers’ efforts produced the first Olympia Pride March that led from Marathon Park and ended with a rally at the State Capitol, drawing a crowd of over 300 people. By the early 2000s, Pride week was widely celebrated by local residents and businesses.
2012 Photograph of the Governor Hotel by Deborah Ross
Looking Back’s theme for 2026 was Downtown by the Decades. In May 1984, the City of Olympia was honored to host the time trials for the first Women’s Olympic Marathon. The race began and ended on Evergreen Park Drive, above the future site of Marathon Park, later named in honor of the event, and passed through downtown, witnessed by huge crowds.
1984 photo, Olympian archives
Looking Back’s theme for 2026 was Downtown by the Decades. In 1979, civic organizations and the City retained a national organization known as R/UDAT to come up with a vision for the revitalization of downtown Olympia. One recommendation was to make downtown streets more attractive and pedestrian-friendly. In 1981, Governor John Spellman cut the ribbon dedicating the “Fifth Avenue Demonstration Project,” which added pedestrian crossings, benches, and trees to the landscape.
Olympia Planning Commission archives, Washington State Archives
Looking Back’s theme for 2026 was Downtown by the Decades. On September 15, 1967, an era came to an end with the closing of the iconic Mottman’s Mercantile department store, located at 4th and Capitol. Shown here, in a photo taken shortly before, is the ground floor of the store, looking down from the balcony where George Mottman presided until he was well into his 80s.
Mottman Collection, Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum
Looking Back’s theme for 2026 is Downtown by the Decades. In May 1950, Olympia celebrated the centennial of its founding with a parade and other events. This image shows the float for Sunset Life Insurance, with riders in vintage attire.
Susan Parish collection, 1950, Washington State Archives
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2026
Looking Back’s theme for 2026 was Downtown by the Decades. For decades, the Little Hollywood community, consisting of “float houses,” businesses, and makeshift residences, existed along the Deschutes River Estuary. In 1941, most of it was evacuated, demolished, and burned, to make way for the development of Capitol Lake. A few makeshift homes and float houses continued to linger on throughout the 1940s. This image from 1950 shows the destruction nearly complete.
Olympia Fire Department collection, Washington State Archives, image SW-540-3-6-ph000009
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2026
Looking Back’s theme for 2026 was Downtown by the Decades. On April 13, 1949, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake inflicted widespread damage in Olympia and beyond. Pictured here is the corner of the Martin Building, at the southwest corner of 5th and Washington. The marquee and canopy of the M.M. Morris clothing store were detached, and the roofline sustained major damage.
Unknown photographer, 1949, Washington State Archives, image AR-28001001-ph002955
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2026
Looking Back’s theme for 2026 was Downtown by the Decades. On a frigid day in January 1937, the imposing Odd Fellows Hall, at the southwest corner of Capitol Way and 5th Avenue, burned down. Firefighters bravely battled the fire; icicles hanging from power lines dramatically illustrate the challenge due to the freezing weather.
Olympia Fire Department collection, 1937, Washington State Archives, image SW-540-3-6-ph000005
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2026
Looking Back’s theme for 2026 was Downtown by the Decades. The early 20th century brought demands for better road surfaces for bicycles and early automobiles. In 1909 the city finally paved Fourth Avenue, with workers taking a moment to pose for their photograph, and spectators looking on.
unidentified photographer, 1908, courtesy State Capital Museum Collection, Washington State Historical Society, catalog C1960.290X.4
Text © Deborah Ross and the Olympian 2026
Looking Back’s theme for 2025 features Thurston County area photographers, artists, and their subjects. William Duckering was an Olympia-based photographer, active in the latter part of the 19th century. Here he captures a dress rehearsal for a production of H.M.S. Pinafore, featuring some of Olympia’s most prominent citizens.
Duckering photo, about 1895, Susan Parish Collection, Washington State Archives
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2025
Looking Back’s theme for 2025 features Thurston County area photographers, artists, and their subjects. The Best Camera Shop sold cameras and film in the early to mid-20th century. In 1950, they expanded to a photographic studio staffed by photographers John Macaluso, Jay Jaycox, and Bruce Burkhart. The studio was launched just in time to capture the Olympia Centennial “Grand Parade of Progress” on May 6.
Best Camera photograph, 1950, courtesy State Capital Museum Collection, Washington State Historical Society
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2025
Looking Back’s theme for 2025 featured Thurston County area photographers, artists, and their subjects. William B. Conser was a photographer for the Olympian who captured many events and people, including an historic series that documented the destruction caused by the 1949 earthquake. Shown here is the elaborate scaffolding and tramway erected to repair the lantern atop the Legislative Building.
Conser photograph for the Olympian, about 1950, courtesy State Capital Museum Collection, Washington State Historical Society, catalog C1986.36.51
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2025
Looking Back’s theme for 2025 featured Thurston County area photographers, artists, and their subjects. In 2005, historian Lynn Erickson and artist Robert Chamberlain collaborated to produce a series of watercolors called Sylvester’s Window. This watercolor (cropped from the original) shows the Grand Parade of Progress in 1950, celebrating Olympia’s Centennial. The artist whimsically included himself as a young man chatting with Margaret McKenny by the grandstand.
Courtesy Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum (cropped image from Sylvester’s Window project)
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2025
Throughout 2023 the Sunday Olympian’s Looking Back theme was origins of area place names. Old Oregon Trail Road descends from near the south end of Water Street to the waterfront below I-5. Before I-5 was built, this road was called View Place. The name was changed in 1983 to recognize that this road was part of the northern segment of the Oregon Trail in Washington Territory. Shown here is the dedication of the End of the Oregon Trail marker in Sylvester Park in 1913.
Courtesy State Capital Museum collection, Washington State Historical Society, catalog 2012.0.259
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2023
In 2023 the Sunday Olympian’s theme for its Looking Back feature was the origins of area place names. In 1970, a park was created on Capitol Lake’s western shore by placing fill material next to an existing railroad berm in the north basin of the lake. The park earned its current name, Marathon Park, when the City of Olympia won the right to host the U.S. time trials for the first Women’s Olympic Marathon, in 1984. The marathon route for the trials began and ended on Mottman Hill, above the site of the park.
1984 photo, Olympian archives
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2023
Washington State and Olympia were in the forefront of the push for female suffrage in our state and nationally. Pictured here is prominent Olympian Bernice Sapp, while she was attending the National American Woman Suffrage Convention in 1909. Held in Seattle simultaneously with the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition, it was a major event in the campaign for successful ratification of permanent voting rights for most Washington women in 1910, ten years before the national 19th amendment.
1909 photograph, Courtesy State Capital Museum collection, Washington State Historical Society, catalog C1961.18.29
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2022
