David Goularte [this article originally appeared in the Fall 2013 Olympia Historical Society Quarterly bulletin and has been updated by the author in 2023, 2024, and 2025]
The [Egbert-Ingham] house first appeared in print in the forerunner of The Olympian on December 20, 1914 as having been completed that spring. Called “one of the finest homes in the city,” it cost $6,000. to build. The same article noted that the Carnegie library was also completed that year for $21,000. The average bungalow cost $1,200 in 1914.
A wealthy industrialist from Shelby, Ohio, Joseph A. Seltzer, built the house as a wedding present for his daughter. He owned 5 factories, one of which manufactured the first bubble gum in America. The daughter, Dana Seltzer Egbert had married Dr. Curtis Egbert, a dentist who had come to Olympia in 1902. They married in 1912 and bought the lot from the Mottman family. They had Tacoma architect Luther Twichell design the house. His firm built Stadium High School in Tacoma. Building began in 1913. Move in day was in May of 1914.
Dana Egbert’s first party was in 1915 for ladies to knit mittens for the Belgians who were suffering during the First World War when Germany overran Belgium. Dr. Egbert entertained lonely soldiers from “Camp Lewis” in their home in 1918.