In the 1880s, it became apparent that Olympia was in urgent need of a hotel that could accommodate the numbers of legislators, lobbyists and hangers-on that appeared on a regular basis during legislative sessions. A number of prominent citizens raised the funds to build the grand Victorian-style Olympia Hotel, at 8th and Capitol. Sadly, it burned in a spectacular fire in 1904.
Photograph around 1890, courtesy State Capital Museum Collection, Washington State Historical Society catalog C1945.191.1
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian