La Villa – Meeker Mansion

Location: 1010 Rogers St SW
Local Register

La Villa-Meeker House, 1937, Thurston County Assessor, Southwest Regional Archives

La Villa-Meeker House today (2014), photograph by Deb Ross

Erected between 1930 and 1935, La Villa-Meeker House is one of the most unusual and elaborate homes in Olympia. It is on the local register. Its designer and owner, Ernest Meeker (see also Meeker House), was a builder, and the house reflects his personality, with many unusual features, including its construction out of different kinds of stones, even including petrified wood. It is situated on a very large landscaped lot overlooking Capitol Lake. The home is on the local register and has maintained virtually all of its original features.

Many thanks to owner Angela Bowen for access to the home and additional information about it.

Olympia Heritage inventory

Ed Westman – 9/29/24
Looking Back’s theme for 2024 is Many Streams, celebrating our rich history. Scandinavians began arriving in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1800s, with many working in logging, lumber, and construction industries. In 1921, Swedish-born Ed Westman, pictured here, founded the Olympia Veneer Company, which was a revolutionary experiment in cooperative ownership as well as…
September 29, 2024
Olympia Junk – 9/22/24
Looking Back’s theme for 2024 is Many Streams, celebrating our rich history. The Olympia Junk Company, located at the corner of Legion Way and Columbia, was founded in about 1906 by Jewish entrepreneur Morris Berkowitz, who is likely in this 1914 photograph. It was later purchased by Morris’s in-laws, the Bean family, and became Olympia…
September 22, 2024
Slocum and Yowaluch – 9/15/24
Looking Back’s theme for 2024 is Many Streams, celebrating our rich and diverse history. In about 1881, Squaxin tribal member John Slocum and Louis Yowaluch, pictured here, and their families, co-founded the Indian Shaker church near Mud Bay. The denomination eventually spread to include dozens of churches throughout the Pacific Northwest. The Indian Shaker church…
September 15, 2024