Location: 1056 Boundary St SE
Local register
Lybarger House, 1973, courtesy of Mark Foutch |
Lybarger House today (2013), photo by Deb Ross |
The Lybarger House was built about 1887 on the east side of Olympia, on the other side of the Swantown Bridge from downtown. John G. Lybarger was a lumberman, but also, for a few years, an investor, buying several blocks of land in partnership with John L. Henderson, a professor at Olympia Collegiate Institute. Lybarger and his wife Lura Mix Lybarger raised three children in this house. In only a few years, however, legal, financial and personal difficulties forced him to sell the home to his partner’s mother, Catherine Henderson. The house changed hands many times and by 1973, when the above photo at left was taken, it was in seriously deteriorated condition. The Bobbitt family bought and began its restoration; in the mid-1980s, Olympia Mayor Mark Foutch and his wife purchased the house and completed the restoration. Mayor Foutch notes that the house therefore belonged to two Olympia City Council members, as Lybarger served on the City Council around the time the house was built.
The house is built in the Italianate style. At the time it was built, it would have had a nice view of the Swantown Slough and downtown Olympia. Although it doesn’t have extensive decorative features, the paired brackets at the eaves add an elegant touch. The house is on the local register.
Thank you to Mark Foutch and Janet Charles for additional information and photograph
Additional resources:
For more information on the Lybarger and Henderson families, see the Residents section of this website
Copyright © 2022 Deborah Ross