Looking Back’s theme for 2026 was Downtown by the Decades. In the 1870s, Sam Williams established a hardware store near the corner of Fourth Avenue and Capitol Way. Sam and Hulda Williams’ home, shown here, was at the northwest corner of the intersection, the current site of the Mottman Building. The Williams hardware store to its north was later replaced by the Olympia Hardware building, still in existence. (The home was later moved, where it can be seen in some early photographs of the YMCA building)
A.B. Woodard photo, 1870s, courtesy State Capital Museum collection, Washington State Historical Society, catalog C2008.5.47
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2026