Throughout 2021 the Olympian’s Looking Back feature portrayed events and people from the Sylvester’s Window cityscape project, available online here. In 1856, Olympia’s cofounder Edmund Sylvester was overseeing construction of his Italianate mansion, located just south of the town common now named after him. A German immigrant, Konrad Schneider, was responsible for much of the home’s construction. Schneider had just returned to Olympia after building the New Dungeness lighthouse outside of Sequim.
Photograph courtesy the Schneider family
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2021