Phillips House

Location: 224 17th Ave SE
Local register, South Capitol National Historic Neighborhood

Phillips House, 1939, Thurston County Assessor, Southwest Regional Archives

Phillips House today (2014), photo by Deb Ross

This comfortable Craftsman style home is from the Tumwater Lumber Mills catalogue and dates from 1922. Its massive round porch columns give the home a neo-Colonial flavor. Tumwater Lumber Mills was a company founded by the Swedish-born Anderson brothers and was the source for over 50 homes in the South Capitol neighborhood as well as several homes on the West Side of Olympia (see, e.g., Harmon House for more information about this company). Frank Phillips, the owner, was a dentist. The home is on the local register and in the South Capitol National Historic Neighborhood.

Olympia Heritage inventory

South Capitol National Historic Neighborhood

Urban Hicks – 6/4/23
Throughout 2023 we’ll be exploring the origins of area place names. Hicks Lake in Lacey is named for the Hicks family. Urban E. Hicks arrived in Thurston County in the 1850s. He served as Territorial Auditor, librarian, schoolteacher, and publisher. His son, Gallatin Gwin Hicks, established a resort, Gwinwood, on Hicks Lake, that still exists.…
June 4, 2023
End of Oregon Trail – 5/28/23
Throughout 2023 we’ll be exploring the origins of area place names. Old Oregon Trail Road descends from near the south end of Water Street to the waterfront below I-5. Before I-5 was built, this road was called View Place. The name was changed in 1983 to recognize that this road was part of the northern…
May 28, 2023
Colonel Speed Sapp – 5/21/23
Throughout 2023 we’ll be exploring the origins of area place names. Sapp Road in Tumwater was named for the Sapp family, who settled in Thurston County in the late 1800s. Looking Back recently ran a photograph of Bernice Sapp, a prominent suffragist. Shown here is her brother, Colonel Speed Sapp. Confusingly, Colonel was his first…
May 21, 2023