Olympia Supply

Location: 625 Columbia St SW
Diversity: Jewish heritage

Olympia Supply, 1987, Courtesy of Olympia Supply

Olympia Supply now (2012), photo by Matt Kennelly

The Olympia Supply Company is the successor name to Olympia Junk, which was originally located one block to the north of this location. The business is still associated with the Bean family who owned the company until 2016, and are important members of Olympia’s Jewish community (see also Meeker/Bean House). This building contains numerous historical curiosities, including girders that came from the Galloping Gertie bridge. The building was erected in 1946 and is of masonry construction. It is not inventoried.

Until the development of Capitol Lake in 1951, this area abutted Little Hollywood and was largely industrial. When Robert Esterly took his historic photographs of downtown Olympia in 1914, this location was the home of Weller Coal Company, which is pictured in the link provided below.

Addtional resources:

Washington State Historical Society, Weller Coal Company photograph (enter the following catalog numbers in Collections Search box) 2010.149.2.1

For more information on the Bean family, see the Residents section of our webpage