Location: 1017 Capitol Way S
Local register, Women’s History
Jessie Gibbons and daughter Catherine, courtesy of Washington State Historical Society |
Gibbons House today (2013), photo by Deb Ross |
This large Foursquare style house, with an adjoining rear annex, was built in 1918 bv contractor E.B. Crews, for his daughter Jessie (sometimes spelled Jesse) Crews Gibbons. It was built as a rooming house and the two buildings taken together contained 28 rooms. Mrs. Gibbons, a divorcee, operated the rooming house from 1918 to the 1960s. The 1930 census shows 21 separately listed tenants, including Jessie’s mother, Ida Crews. Tenants included both men and women, many working in clerical capacities for the state. Over the years, legislators, judges, and others needing temporary lodging took rooms here. The home is on the local register and is noted in the Women’s History Walking Tour as an example of a woman-owned business. The rooms have been converted to apartments but the house is otherwise well preserved.
Women’s History in Olympia National Multiple Property Listing
Copyright © 2022 Deborah Ross