Location: 1136 East Bay Drive NE
National Register, State Register, Local Register, Women’s History, Diversity: Germans
Meyer House ca. 1910, photo courtesy of Olympia Mansion |
Meyer-Riddle House today (2010), photo by Deborah Ross |
The Meyer Riddle House was built in 1904 by Victor Meyer, a German immigrant who moved to Olympia in the late 19th century. He was a plumber and contractor by trade, and his two sons were also in the building industry. Lena Meyer was active in the women’s suffrage movement. The house is unique in being made of artistic concrete block, a building material that was very popular elsewhere in the country at the time, but was unique to Olympia. The concrete is shaped and colored to resemble stone. The house is on three levels with balustrades on every level; an artesian well in the back supplied water to the home. There is also a tunnel leading from East Bay Drive to the basement of the building, likely used to bring in supplies such as coal.
After the Meyers left, the home was acquired by Emma Riddle, who created a massage and nerve treatment center here, as well as operating a boarding house on the upper two levels.
The house was extensively remodeled beginning in the 1980s and has been operated as a bed and breakfast/rental facility for several years. It is listed on the national, state and local registers as a fine example of unusual building materials.
The artesian well at the rear of the house once supplied water to an early brewery, but according to historian Gordon Newell, the water was of too pure quality to compete with the preferred brackish water of downtown Olympia. Workingman’s Hill, page 6
For more information follow these links:
Washington State Historical Society photographs (enter catalog number in Collections Search box): C1964.26.4.6.2
PCTV/TCTV produced video on Meyer-Riddle House, available for viewing on Youtube
Copyright © 2022 Deborah Ross