Our focus this month is Thurston County’s long love affair with amateur theatrics. In 1908 a performance of The Whirl O’ the Town was staged at the 1,000-seat Olympia Opera House, as a fund raiser for a new Olympia Woman’s Club home. Its previous clubhouse had burned down in 1907. With a cast numbering about 100, the seats were undoubtedly filled with performers’ relatives and friends. Photograph selected by costumier Melanie Ransom on behalf of the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum.
Unknown photographer, 1908, State Capital Museum collection, Washington State Historical Society