Location: 523 Central St SE
Glidden House-523 Central, 1970, Thurston County Assessor, Washington State Archives |
Glidden House-523 Central today (2013), photograph by Deborah Ross |
The house at 523 Central Avenue SE is one of three homes in a row that were built by Arno Glidden around 1924 (the others are at 515 and 503 Central). They are relatively simple frame homes, each with a different set of decorative features. Arno Glidden was the son of teamster Frank Glidden, a longtime South Bay family (see Glidden Homestead). He worked as a cement worker in Olympia and took a job at McCleary Door Company (see McCleary Mansion and McCleary-Robinson House) where he rose from the ranks of lumberman and eventually was a superintendent. Arno built these homes and rented them out to a variety of tenants. The homes are characteristic of many of the modest workers’ homes on the east side of Olympia.
For more information on the Glidden family, see the Residents section of this website. See also Glidden Duplex in the South Capitol Neighborhood.
Copyright © 2022 Deborah Ross