Tour of Homes Home Details

1002 Washington St SE, built 1908

Abbie (or Abby) Howard Hunt Stuart was a member of an influential group of women who set the tone of late 19th century Olympia society. Together with their supportive spouses, they advanced the causes of suffrage, temperance, and other social programs, to such an extent that Olympia became known for its progressive views throughout the West and the nation. Abbie was one of the co-founders of the Woman’s Club, the first of its kind of the West. With the encouragement of her close friend  Abigail Scott Duniway, Abbie chose not to use the club as a bully pulpit for her pro-suffrage beliefs. Instead, the club was explicitly founded as a haven for women to come together and discuss literary and other non-controversial topics. Abbie confided her secret goal to her friend Abigail: the club would be designed to attract “women who oppose the Suffrage Movement (or think they do) . . . to divest themselves of their prejudices.”

At first meeting in members’ homes, Abbie and her husband Robert hosted the Woman’s Club in their new Stuart Block building (Capitol and Legion) for a time until the club purchased a building on 10th Street. That building was later moved to a location near the current Timberland Library, and the club raised funds to build the current building, with its elegant and understated architecture melding in with the other fine residences in the neighborhood. It was completed in 1908. 

Unfortunately, Abbie died before the current building was built, and before women’s suffrage was enacted nationwide. The building is named in her honor. It is on the National Register.

Thank you to Pat Harper for information on history of the building and the club.

To view a historic photo, see the entry on our website at https://olympiahistory.org/womens-club/

Text courtesy Deborah Ross.

918 Glass Avenue NE, built circa 1860

In 1854, Daniel Richardson Bigelow and Ann Elizabeth White, both newcomers to Washington Territory, married and began their life together in the two-room cabin Daniel built on his 640 acre parcel of land just east of Budd Inlet, across from downtown Olympia. Soon afterwards (sources vary on the actual year) they built their neat two-story Carpenter Gothic home where they raised their eight children. The home remained in the family for over 100 years. 

The front half was constructed first and sits on a raft of charred cedar logs measuring 16”-18” in diameter. This was a common practice to preserve the wood from beetles and rot. The back half was added later (although it is not known how much later) and uses a more contemporary pier and pad construction method.

In 1871, the famous suffragist Susan B. Anthony dined at the Bigelow House while passing through Olympia on one of her lecture tours. A plaque outside the house commemorates the occasion, and family legend identifies one of the armchairs in the parlor as the one upon which Miss Anthony sat. 

In 1905, Ann Elizabeth modified the room layouts, added the stairs in the library and substantially changed the old kitchen into a formal dining room and the milk room into the current kitchen. These remodels allowed the family to rent rooms to boarders and generate additional income.    

There was another phase of renovation in 1950 after Ruth Bigelow Wright (daughter of Daniel and Ann Elizabeth) died.  The rear kitchen was modernized and a hot water radiator system was installed.  

In 1992, friends, neighbors and supporters of local history formed the non-profit Bigelow House Preservation Association (since merged with the Olympia Historical Society) to preserve and protect the Bigelow House and continue the family’s long commitment to sharing their story and the house with the public.

BHPA purchased the house from third-generation residents Daniel and Mary Ann Bigelow in 1994 and undertook an extensive restoration of the interior and exterior of the house to its territorial-era appearance. In 1995, the Bigelow House opened to the public as a museum, interpreting the family’s story as a window on the larger history of the Olympia community, Washington State, and the Pacific Northwest.

Three women on the daffodil path. For more historic photos of the Bigelow House and its occupants, visit our website at https://olympiahistory.org/bigelow-house-photograph-collection/

The Curtiss House in 2025, photo by Ben Helle.

903 Glass Ave NE, built circa 1903

This charming home is an example of the Victorian cottage style. An early owner was Caroline Curtiss, a dressmaker and hatmaker who operated her business out of her home. The building is also known as the Hilyar House after its subsequent residents.

Caroline Beaman was born in Oswego, New York, in 1850. At age 21, she married Charles Gould Curtiss; an 1880 census shows her living in Michigan with Charles and his 23-year-old son. Widowed in 1893, Caroline arrived in Olympia by 1903. She purchased this newly-built house from the Bigelow family, who created the Bigelow neighborhood by selling off lots from their land claim. Perhaps she could not afford the house for long – it was purchased by Silas and Jane Hilyar by 1908, and in 1910 the federal census listed Caroline as a boarder. Caroline died in 1914 and was buried in the Masonic Cemetery. The probate case file lists her heir as an older sister in Nebraska, Minerva Sisson. Multiple records including city directories, the census and her death certificate list Caroline’s occupation as seamstress or dressmaker. A cenotaph showing Caroline’s name and date of birth, but no date of death, stands in the cemetery where her husband is buried in Plymouth, Michigan. Perhaps she intended to be buried beside her husband, but no one stepped forward to have her body transported back to Michigan.

1902-1903 Polk Directory, Washington State Archives

Silas L. Hilyar was born in New York in1842; his wife, Jane Tate, was born in Ohio in 1851. Their daughter, Myrtle, was born in Washington in 1892. An 1892 census locates Silas and Jane in Tacoma, where Silas’s occupation is listed as gardener. The family later lived in Lewis County, before moving to Olympia and acquiring the Curtiss House around 1907-08. City directories show Myrtle living with her parents at age 20 and working as a finisher at the Olympia Knitting Company; in 1914 her occupation is listed as stenographer. Silas died in 1917, and like Caroline Curtiss, was buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Tumwater. Myrtle married Earl Fields in 1916, but sadly died of pneumonia just a year later. Jane lived until 1940 and like her husband and daughter, was buried in the Masonic Cemetery. Though she spent the rest of her life in Olympia, a city directory shows that by 1920 Jane had moved to another address: 1601 E 3rd.

Olympia’s 1985 Historic Property Inventory describes the house: “The Curtiss House is a small one-story cottage of wood frame construction, cruciform in plan, resting on a stone foundation. The gable roof is clad with composition shingles and has narrow eaves and verges. Walls are clad with clapboards and cornerboards, with wide friezeboards below the eaves, and the gables are ornamented with fishscale shingles. A narrow hip-roofed porch at the northwest front corner has turned posts with brackets and a simple balustrade; it shelters the entry door. On the west facade is a three-sided bay with a hip roof. The wide front window is a replacement, while other windows are the original double-hung sash with one-over-one lights. At the rear is a detached garage.”

Curtiss House, 1939, Thurston County  Assessor records, Washington State Archives.

1985 Historic Property Inventory photo:

1985 Historic Property Inventory photo

1126 Olympia Ave. NE, built 1900

This home is an excellent example of the Folk Victorian style that took advantage of new techniques in wood turning that allowed the addition of decorative shingling, turned wood columns with cornice panels. In 1940 a substantial addition was built to the rear of the home.

Nebraska farmer and widowed father of ten Thomas S. Clark relocated to Olympia later in life. He built this house in 1900 and lived there until his death in 1917 at age 85. His adult daughters Martha Lesline “Lina” Clark Houpt and Theda Ellen Clark McClintic relocated to Olympia as well. Martha and her husband Jacob D. Houpt lived with Thomas Clark for time. A 1910 census shows that Martha and Jacob were both employed at the Star Laundry, Jacob as a fireman (someone who maintained the boiler and hot water / steam systems) and Martha as a starcher. A 1924 city directory lists no occupation for Jacob, but lists Martha as a laundress, still at the Star Laundry.

This Washington State Historical Society photograph shows the Star Laundry in 1914. The woman on the right may be Martha, who was 54 at the time.

 Olympia’s 1985 Historic Property Inventory describes the house: “Perched above the street on a corner lot, the Clark House is a two-story, Pioneer-style wood frame structure on a later concrete block foundation. The gable roof is covered with composition shingles and has a center gable on the front (south) facade. Walls are clad with drop siding and cornerboards, and fishscale shingles ornament the south gable. Spanning the south facade is a shed-roofed porch with a post and pier foundation with lattice panels, and turned posts spanned by spindlework cornice panels. Windows are tall, narrow double-hung sash with one-over-one lights and plain surrounds. A narrow shed-roofed addition extends from the west wall, and an elongated gable-roofed addition extends to the north.”

The Thomas Clark House in 1970, Thurston County Assessor records, Washington State Archives