Location: 119 10th Ave SW
mid-Century modern; Women’s history; Transportation
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No vintage photograph has been scanned either of the Hartsuck home or the State Parking garage. If you have one to share or would like to sponsor scanning of the photograph below, please contact us |
State Parking garage today(2014), photo by Deb Ross |
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, this part of town was home to many important residences and residents. Mark Hartsuck had his home here on 10th Avenue, just west of Main Steet (Capitol Way). Mark’s wife was Ann Conner, a member of the second Mercer expedition, which brought unmarried women to Washington State in the hope of partly remedying the shortage of marriageable women in the Territory. Georgiana Stevens, another “Mercer Girl,” married John Gowey and lived less than a block away in the Gowey House. Ann Conner Hartsuck was a president of the Woman’s Club and an early suffragist.
Today, this is the location of a State Parking Garage. In the 1950s, the state began expanding Capitol Campus on the west side of Capitol Way to the north and south, erecting the General Administration building in 1956, the State Library (Joel Pritchard) Building in 1959, and the parking garage in 1958. With the expansion, the need for adequate parking for state employees became apparent, and the state leased parking spaces in this, and the adjacent 1972-built garage (now razed) to state employees for reasonable rates.
The garage is one of the earliest examples in the state of the Brutalist style of architecture, featuring rough concrete sides and chunky shapes. The garage is featured in the mid-Century modern Walking Tour developed by the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation and the City of Olympia.
Links:
Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation Inventory
Washington State Historical Society (enter the following catalog numbers in Collections Search box), C1952.226.73 (not scanned)
For more information on the Hartsuck family, see the residents section of this website.
Copyright © 2022 Deborah Ross