Jeffers Building – 3/30/25

Looking Back’s theme for 2025 features Thurston County area photographers, artists, and their subjects. Joseph Jeffers grew up in Olympia and took an interest in photography from an early age. In 1913, he commissioned architect Joseph Wohleb to create this studio, at the corner of 4^th and Washington, at the same location as his previous studio. This was Wohleb’s first major commission, and still exists. Image selected and captioned by Deborah Ross on behalf of the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum, https://olympiahistory.org.

Joseph Jeffers photo, about 1914, Courtesy State Capital Museum Collection, Washington State Historical Society

Ida B. Smith Studio – 4/27/25
Looking Back’s theme for 2025 features Thurston County area photographers, artists, and their subjects. Pictured here is the studio of photographer Ida B. Smith, who was active in the late 19th and early 20th century. The studio, shared with her sister, photographer Agnes Mitchel, was near the corner of Jefferson and 4th Avenue, next door…
April 27, 2025
Bus Station by Vibert Jeffers – 4/20/25
Looking Back’s theme for 2025 features Thurston County area photographers, artists, and their subjects. Vibert Jeffers was a prolific Olympia-based photographer, having inherited the business from his father and mother, Joseph and Opal Jeffers. This photograph of the North Coast (later Greyhound) bus depot in downtown Olympia was taken in 1937, soon after the depot…
April 23, 2025
Ida B. Smith self portrait – 4/14/25
Looking Back’s theme for 2025 features Thurston County area photographers, artists, and their subjects. Ida B. Smith, pictured here in a self-portrait, came to Olympia with her husband in about 1891. After her husband’s death, Ida took up professional photography, first with her sister Agnes Mitchel and then on her own. Photograph selected and captioned…
April 14, 2025