Throughout 2021 the Sunday Olympian’s Looking Back feature portrayed events and people from the Sylvester’s Window cityscape project. In its early decades, as seen in the 1856 cityscape, Olympia’s commercial core was located in the few blocks north of State Avenue. In this photograph, taken much later, around 1902, we can still see remnants of the Bettman store, the balconied Washington Hotel, and the seat of the first territorial legislature beyond it (now the location of Chelsea Farms restaurant on Capitol Way north).
Asahel Curtis photograph, 1902, courtesy Washington State Historical Society, catalog 1943.42.1415
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2021