Looking Back’s theme for 2026 was Downtown by the Decades. As Territorial Government grew in the 1880s, the need for lodging for legislators and assorted hangers-on became apparent. Several local business people, including self-described capitalist Pamelia Case Hale, financed the imposing Olympia Hotel. It was on Main Street (Capitol Way), north of 8th Avenue. It burned in a spectacular fire in 1901.
Courtesy State Capital Museum collection, Washington State Historical Society, catalog C1945.191.1
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2026