Llyn De Danaan and Carol McKinley have created a walking tour exploring Olympia’s Gay and Lesbian History. Thank you to them for permitting us to post this on our website. Gay History Walking Tour May 29, 2012
Mark Foutch For the remainder of 2002, the Olympia Historical Society continued the process of “standing up” its permanent organization while performing its mission and responding to opportunities. Members elected a Board of Directors, who in turn adopted staggered Board terms and elected officers and adopted a budget for the following year. There were three…
Anne Kilgannon, with thanks to Beth Dubey for background information. Louis Bettman arrived in Olympia and set up a general merchandise store in 1853. Within a year, two other establishments with Jewish proprietors opened for business in the muddy little village that would become the city of Olympia: Goldman and Rosenblatt’s People’s Emporium and M. Louisson’s…
by Edward Echtle The Olympia area presents numerous opportunities to learn about the people and places of our past. In rural areas, many historic places survive relatively unchanged from the earliest days of settlement. Museums, historic houses and cabins, archaeological sites and interpretive markers present the curious traveler a varied menu of sights representing the…
By Mark Derricott, former editor of the OHS Newsletter I recently re-read a couple of my favorite books: The Histories by Herodotus and Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov.Aside from realizing that I was much too young when I read them last time, I happened to read those books as my personal life underwent some relatively dramatic turn of events.…
By Mark Foutch, President Incorporation, Bylaws and Progress (If the exploratory and organizational meetings of 2001 could be considered “conception” and “birth,” then early in 2002 the Olympia Historical Society was “confirmed” and took its first steps. And suddenly the “toddler” had lots of great ideas. The challenge would be to choose among them and…
By Emmett O’Connell In 1903 John P. Fink, a newspaper man and promoter, had an idea for a baseball league. Fink seemed to be a jack-of-all-trades sort of promoter in the era, is mostly mentioned in that gray area between public relations and newspapering. He wrote about sports, worked for newspapers, but also ran teams…
Background: For many decades Olympia was content to depend on the State Capital Museum for its local history venue and a place to store many of its important historical assets. In the early ‘90s it appeared that the Art Deco Thurston County Courthouse on Capitol Way would be torn down and a State History Museum…
The previous two newsletters contained articles on the history of Capitol Lake, whose authors maintain divergent conclusions. As our newsletter policies maintain, the Olympia Historical Society welcomes submissions on any subject of local history and does not take positions on the points of view of our contributors. Mr. Miller submitted the following: Unfortunately the membership…
Mark Derricott, Editor Introduction Does Aristotle’s theory of the whole can become greater than the sum of its parts hold true if we apply it to our community? Can something as abstract as a community possibly transcend the totality of its individuals? If so, how does that happen? If the Olympia Municipal Code is any…
Mark Derricott* The excellent recent piece about Capitol Lake by Mr. Allen Miller and a formidable rejoinder in this quarter’s newsletter by Mr. Emmett O’Connell reveals a rich dialogue about our local history. Mr. O’Connell’s appeal to “true historical context” counters Mr. Miller’s exhortation to perfect the Wilder and White plan on its 100th birthday.…
This article originally appeared on the Squaxin Island Tribe’s Natural Resource Department Weblog and was reprinted here as another view of the history of the development of Capitol Lake. The Olympia Historical Society takes no positions on the analysis or conclusions of the authors who submit articles for consideration in our newsletters. The creation of…
Bush Prairie Farm, Then and Now By Mark Derricott, Editor It is not often that the present so starkly meets the past, but it is actually happening this year. Two relatively recent developments have compellingly confirmed this development. Most of you are familiar with the first: our own Deborah Ross’s book, Konrad and Albertina, which reconstructs…
Centennial of the Wilder and White Plan for Capitol Campus By: Allen Miller with assistance from Professor Emeritus Norman J. Johnston, Ralph Munro, and Leavitt White A century ago, on both coasts of America, the curtain of history was about to go up on a transcontinental drama still being played out today. In the West the setting…
Olympia, the Capital of the State of Washington By Allen Weir The Washington Historian, 2:3 (April, 1901), 107-111. Some one has said that “God made the country and man made the city.” This is, at least, an exaggerated statement, and needs to be qualified. No city could be built, or could flourish, unless it have…
A Short History of Industry and Manufacturing in Thurston County, Washington by Thomas Rainey Mirror of page http://www.wa.gov/esd/lmea/labrmrkt/eco/thureco.htm The following history is largely excerpted from “A Short History of Industry and Manufacturing in Thurston County, Washington,” by Thomas Rainey, Ph.D. Additional commentary has been included by LMEA staff. The native inhabitants of what is now…
SOME OF THE EARLY DOCTORS OF OLYMPIA by Dr. T.R. Ingham (Used with permission from Thurston County Historic Commission) 1994 CHARLES McARTHUR Charles E. McArthur was born July 9, 1901 on a Kansas wheat farm near Walton, some ten miles north of Wichita. He attended the one room school at Walton and…
Scanned version “So Fair a Dwelling Place”: A History of Olympia and Thurston County Washington By Gordon Newell Olympia: Olympia News Publishing, 1950. Electronically Transcribed 2001. By Edward Echtle Note: transcription retains errors appearing in the original text, and no doubt includes a few added in the transcription process. Please check unclear passages against an…
By Winnifred Olsen and Lois Fenske History Priest Point Park, located about a mile north of downtown Olympia, has a colorful history. The forested area and beach were once the site of an Indian village. Then came the European and American explorers, fur trappers and American settlers in 1845 and 1846. In 1848 an…
