The Security Building on Fourth Avenue was Olympia’s first “skyscraper,” at five stories! The building features elaborate rosettes and pineapple motifs, a variety of rare stones, and mahogany woodwork throughout. Built on pilings that extended 60 feet deep, the building survived both the 1949 and the 2001 earthquakes.
Vibert Jeffers photograph, around 1926, Susan Parish Collection, Southwest Regional Archives, AR20090812-ph007995
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2016 and 2026