Location: 550 Capitol Way S
National Downtown Historic District, Women’s History, Mid-century modern; Diversity: Japanese
Stuart Block, 1891 |
Stuart Place today (2012), Photo courtesy of Matthew Kennelly |
Robert and Abbie Howard Hunt Stuart built the commercial building shown at above left in the late 1880s, on the former location of their home, across from Sylvester Park. It housed retail stores on the ground floor, including a grocery store, the State/US Employment Assistance Office, and the Standard Drug Store, later Crombie’s Drug Store. Studios and offices on the second floor included the Woman’s Club (before the Abigail [sic] Stuart Woman’s Club building was erected).
One of the storefronts along Capitol Way housed the State Employment Assistance Office, nationalized in 1941 to the U.S. Employment Assistance office, to assist workers during the Depression. In 1942, by Presidential proclamation, all Japanese or Japanese descendants were ordered to report to the office to be sent to internment camps.
The Stuart Block building was demolished some time around 1949. A new building was erected at this location, which housed the Miller Department Store. This building suffered minor damage in the 1949 earthquake and currently (2012) houses several restaurants on the ground floor. A four-story apartment unit, named Stuart Place in recognition of the site’s previous owners, was erected above this building in 1994.
Historian Bernice Sapp claims that on this site was the first home of Governor Isaac I. Stevens, although other historians place that home further to the north.
Washington State Historical Society photographs (enter the following catalog numbers in Collections Search box): C1945.20.15 (Robert and Abbie Stuart House at this location); C1952.1068.1 (Stuart Block is in foreground at right in this 1898 photo of Main Street looking north) 1998.81.12 (earthquake damage); C1996.6.22; C1964.26.4.4.8; C1964.26.4.8.5
Olympia Downtown National Historic District
Mid-Twentieth Century Olympia Context Statement
Photograph of Miller’s Store, 1949, Susan Parish collection, on Olympia Historical Society website
Women’s History in Olympia National Register
For more information on Abbie Howard Hunt Stuart, see Where Are We? listing for Woman’s Club; also Residents section of this website. For more information on Ida B. Smith, also see Residents section of this website.
Thank you to Carl Guteskunst for information about the Employment Assistance office being the site for Japanese internment processing.
Copyright © 2022 Deborah Ross