The Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum selects and captions Olympia-area images for page 2 of the Sunday Olympian. This page features those images and may include additional information about them. You can use the Search button on our menu banner to search for specific photographs and subjects.
Susan Parish Collection, Southwest Regional Archives, photograph by Mae Cummins
The Olympia Light & Power Company, organized in 1890, brought the first electricity to Olympia and Tumwater, Washington. The waterwheel-generated hydroelectric power plant at Tumwater Falls also powered the streetcars between Olympia and Tumwater. In 1923 it was purchased by Puget Sound Power & Light Co. This photograph was taken in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Photograph selected and captioned by Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information see olympiahistory.org.
Vibert Jeffers photograph, Susan Parish Collection, Washington State Archives, 1930
The miniature golf craze hit Olympia in 1930, with two indoor parlors opening that year. This one was located at the former site of a Buick dealership at the corner of Franklin Street and Fifth Avenue. This photograph may depict its opening day in late September. Newspaper reports remarked that the game was taken just as seriously as “real” golf, and with just as much wagering involved. Photograph selected and captioned by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information see olympiahistory.org.
Merle Junk photograph, Susan Parish Collection, Washington State Archives, 1960s
Champion Bramwell Mann, an early Olympia pioneer, held a variety of public offices, including territorial librarian, Thurston County Treasurer, and mayor. His most lasting legacy to local historians is a survey he sent out to other Thurston County pioneers and their descendants, asking questions about their family roots, how they arrived here, and their family members. Mann’s first profession was apothecary, or druggist, but by 1920 he had converted his family homesite on the corner of Fifth and Franklin into a seed store. Mann’s Seeds was still in existence into the 1970s. It is now the home of Rainy Day Records and Little General grocery store. Photograph selected and captioned by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information see olympiahistory.org.
Vibert Jeffers photograph, Susan Parish Collection, Washington State Archives, 1958
Ralph’s Thriftway opened at its present location on State Avenue in 1956. It was a showcase for the very latest in grocery stores. It was also one of the largest stores in the northwest, and included a children’s play area, clothing department, and two leased areas, Bailey Pharmacy and Blue Ribbon Meats. This photograph, taken in 1958, shows the soda fountain and the pharmacy. Photograph selected and captioned by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information see olympiahistory.org
Merle Junk photograph, Susan Parish Collection, Washington State Archives, around 1968
This aerial photograph, taken around 1968, shows the bathing area of Capitol Lake, a popular summertime spot for Olympia’s families. The float in the lake was used for the Christmas Island display in wintertime. Not visible is the dressing area and restroom building, built in the 1960s. Photograph selected and captioned by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information see olympiahistory.org
Vibert Jeffers Photograph, Susan Parish Collection, Washington State Archives
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. This photograph, by Vibert Jeffers, was taken in 1936. In later years this was the Griswold Office Supply building, which burned down in 2004. Today, only a portion of the facade remains. Photograph selected and captioned by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information see olympiahistory.org
Attribution: Vibert Jeffers Photograph, Susan Parish Collection, Washington State Archives
This building was designed in 1924 by architect Joseph Wohleb as a packing and storage facility for the Olympia Oyster Company. This is the only remaining building from Olympia’s once-thriving oyster industry. It is now the site of the popular Olympia Oyster House, the front of which burned in 2013. It reopened in summer 2014. Photograph selected and captioned by Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information, see olympiahistory.org.
Vibert Jeffers Photograph, Susan Parish Collection, Washington State Archives
Ruth Stubbs, now Ruth Stubbs Lewis, recalls that this photograph was taken as a publicity photograph for a calendar, in August of 1950. The Allison Trout Farms diverted Mud Bay’s Allison Creek into a privately owned set of artificially created pools and streams. Mrs. Lewis remembers the determination of the trout to break down the barriers that had been created to pen them in! In recent years, the South Puget Sound Enhancement Group has come to their rescue and restored the springs to their natural contribution to the McLane Creek estuary. Photograph selected and captioned by Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information, see olympiahistory.org.
Attribution: Vibert Jeffers Photograph, Susan Parish Collection, Washington State Archives
This photograph was taken in August of 1939 soon after the Armory building was completed. The building, on Legion Way and Eastside Street, was designed by Olympia’s preeminent architect, Joseph Wohleb, in an Art Deco style. This was a departure from the Mission style that characterized many of his earlier public buildings. The Armory served as a listening post for enemy aircraft during World War II. It is currently the home of the National Guard. Photograph selected and captioned by Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information, see olympiahistory.org.
Attribution: Vibert Jeffers photograph, Susan Parish Collection, Washington State Archives
Photographer Vibert Jeffers took this photograph in 1942, looking west down Fifth Avenue in downtown Olympia. Many of the buildings in this photograph remain today, including the Capitol Theater on the right side, the Donald building about halfway down the left side (now the home of Darby’s Cafe), and beyond it, Jeffers’s own studio, the Jeffers Building, now the home to the State of The Arts Gallery. Photograph selected and captioned by Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information, see olympiahistory.org.
Susan Parish Photograph Collection, Washington State Archives, undated postcard, about 1910
In this postcard photograph, taken about 1910, we are looking west up Fourth Avenue from Adams Street. Trolley tracks run down the center of the street. On the right side of the street, the building with the cupola is Columbia Hall, the original city hall and fire station. The White House, about halfway down the left side, is one of the only buildings in this photograph that exist today. It was a grocery store and rooming house. This postcard, along with others featuring Fourth Avenue and Capitol Way, can be viewed at the Olympia Historical Society’s display window in the New Caldonia Building on Fifth Avenue. Photograph selected and captioned by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information, see olympiahistory.org.
Attribution: Vibert Jeffers Photograph, Susan Parish Photograph Collection, Washington State Archives, 1938
The Anderson Apartment building was located on North Capitol Way, adjacent to Zeigler’s Welding. Like other lodging establishments in this part of the city, many of its lodgers were men and women engaged in the port area’s industrial activities, such as seafaring, wood products, canning, and shellfish processing. This photograph by Vibert Jeffers was taken in 1938. Photograph selected and captioned by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information, see olympiahistory.org.
Vibert Jeffers Photograph, Susan Parish Photograph Collection, Washington State Archives, 1935
The Acme Fuel Company was founded in 1925 by the Springer Mill Company as a way to sell off their waste wood products to homes for heating needs. They soon began selling coal and heating oil as those energy sources became more common. In this photograph from 1935, the company is advertising its new General Motors delivery truck, parked in front of the Legislative Building. The company has been owned by the same family, the Allens, since 1940. Photograph selected and captioned by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information, see olympiahistory.org.
Vibert Jeffers Photograph, Susan Parish Collection, Washington State Archives, July 1938
In this photograph from 1938, Olympia’s Broyles Grocery store is advertising “Beer in Keg Lined Cans.” Beer cans were first introduced in 1934, but only gained widespread acceptance during World War II, when they became popular with US Troops. Photograph selected and captioned by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information, see olympiahistory.org.
Olympia Centennial Souvenir Program, Southwest Regional Archives
The Wildwood Building (also known as the G.C. Valley Shopping Center) was the first shopping center built in Olympia, in 1938. The building was designed for owner G.C. Valley by Olympia architect Joseph Wohleb, as he transitioned from his signature Mission style into Art Moderne, which echoed the sleek streamlining of the automobile industry. This advertisement appeared in a newspaper supplement for Olympia’s centennial celebration in 1950. Photograph selected and captioned by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information, see olympiahistory.org.
The St. John’s Episcopal congregation celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2014. The structure pictured here was the congregation’s second structure, built in 1888 at 9th Avenue and Washington Street. It is currently the home of First Baptist Church. The building is on the local heritage register. The image is taken from an 1891 publicity pamphlet produced by the Olympia Tribune. Image selected and captioned by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information, see olympiahistory.org.
In early days of western cities’ development, municipal water was conducted through threaded wooden pipes, a healthier and cheaper material than lead. Our thriving port, with its abundant nearby forest resources, was a natural location for wood-based industries. The National Wood Pipe Company established a factory at the north end of Olympia’s central peninsula (near the current Hands On Children Museum), shipping its products up and down the west coast.Unfortunately, a spectacular fire destroyed the factory in 1909. Photograph selected and captioned by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information, see olympiahistory.org.
State Library Collection, Digital Archives
In June 1933, the Studebaker company sponsored a group of Elks Club members on a journey from Los Angeles to Milwaukee, a promotion for their short-lived Rockne model. Here the group poses in front of Olympia’s
Elks Club building on Capitol Way. The building is now on the local, state, and national heritage registers. Photograph selected and captioned by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information, see
olympiahistory.org.
Jeffers Photograph, Susan Parish Collection, Washington State Archives
State Library Photograph Collection, 1851-1990, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives
On March 18, 1900, the City of Olympia was honored to host the funeral for unclaimed dead Spanish-American War soldiers from Washington State. This photograph shows the funeral procession, which began at the
Olympia Opera House (near the current location of City Hall) to the Masonic Cemetery, where a bronze statue honors their resting place. Behind the funeral cortege is the grand
Olympia Hotel, which burned in 1904. The Dolliver Building on Capitol Way stands at that location now.
Merle Junk photographer, Susan Parish Collection, Washington State Archives
On May 5, 1950, the City of Olympia celebrated its centennial with a parade. Here, a float, featuring bathing beauties over the decades, rounds the corner of Capitol and Fifth Avenue. The Funk-Volland Building is in the background, where Olympia Federal Savings is now. Photograph selected and captioned by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information see olympiahistory.org
State Library Photograph Collection, 1851-1990, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives
St. Martin’s College in Lacey, Washington, now St. Martin’s University, was founded in 1895. In this early aerial photograph we see Old Main, constructed between 1913 and 1923, with the steam plant being the only other visible structure among the surrounding fields and forests. Photograph selected and captioned by the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information see olympiahistory.org
The Olympia Tribune published a promotional brochure in 1891 highlighting important people and places in and around Olympia. This image is of the Chambers Block at Fourth Avenue and Main Street (now Capitol Way), then and now the center of Downtown Olympia. The building still exists. Its ornate parapets and bay windows were severely damaged during the 1949 earthquake. Washington State Library collection. Image selected and captioned by Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information, see olympiahistory.org
State Library Photograph Collection, 1851-1990, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives,http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov
The institution formally named William Winlock Miller High School, but known by all as Olympia High School, has existed at three locations. The second location, featured here, was built in 1919, on Capitol Way between 12th and 13th, on what is now East Capitol Campus. It was originally a three-story brick building with a parapet. An addition was built to the rear in 1926. The building was torn down in 1961 to make way for the Capitol Campus expansion. Photograph selected and captioned by Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum. For more information, see olympiahistory.org
In the days when Puget Sound was the equivalent of our Interstate 5, dozens of small, privately owned steam-driven freight and passenger vessels, dubbed the Mosquito Fleet, plied the waterways between Olympia, at the southern end, all the way to Vancouver, in British Columbia. In this photograph, probably from the 1890s, three sternwheelers – the Northern Light, City of Shelton and Multnomah – are all pulled up at Percival Landing, in Olympia. State Library Photograph Collection, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov
On April 13, 1949 a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Puget Sound, the largest ever recorded. It caused extensive damage and destruction to downtown Olympia and to the State Capitol Campus buildings, as well as the entire Puget Sound region. The Old State Capitol Building (now Office of Superintendent of Instruction) is shown here undergoing repairs. General Subjects Photograph Collection, 1845-2005, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives,http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov. Link here to information about the Old State Capitol Building.
Photographic negative, of a group of three young women identified as the flame princesses,Olympia, WA, Thurston County, evidently a beauty contest associated with the Olympia Fire Department. They are posed outside of the Olympia Fire Department building (now, 2013, the Family Support Center) standing on a fire truck and wearing fire helmets; taken for Olympian (newspaper) May 4, 1960. Photograph ran in the Olympian on May 9, 1960, page 1. Identities of women are Mary Pat Brownell, Becky Cline, Ann Perrault, June Masser, Jenny Lee Michael, Beverly Ikerd, Linda Dobson. (Looking Back feature March 23, 2014) Washington State Historical Society catalogue C1986.43.60.5.4.3.1
