Looking Back’s theme for 2026 is Downtown by the Decades. In the 1970s, downtown Olympia had two second-run movie theaters, the Capitol and the Olympic. First-run movie showings had by then moved to the Capital Mall. Shown here in a photograph from around 1978 is the Olympic Theater on Washington Street near Legion Way (the current location of the Washington Center for the Performing Arts).
Olympia Planning Department archives, Washington State Archives