Throughout 2021 the Olympian’s Looking Back feature portrayed events and people from the Sylvester’s Window cityscape project, now available online here. Columbia Hall, pictured in the 1874 cityscape, was built in 1869 on 4th Avenue, near the center of downtown Olympia. It served a myriad of functions: fire station on the ground floor, city offices above, entertainment hall (it hosted the state’s first inaugural ball in 1889), police headquarters, courthouse, and theater.
1902, Williams Romans photograph, courtesy Washington State Historical Society, catalog 1943.42.1400
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian