Location: 123 Rogers St NW
![]() W.W. Work house 1939, Thurston County Assessor’s photograph from Southwest Regional Archives |
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W.W. Work House today (2011), photo by Deborah Ross |
In the late 1880s, Samuel Woodruff acquired and platted a large part of West Olympia, selling off lots at reasonable prices. Rogers Street was included in the Woodruff Plat, and still contains several original homes. While a handful of homes in this area are larger (for example, the Seeley-McIntyre house), most represent modest workers’ houses. This home, which has not been inventoried by the city, appears to represent a typical bungalow-style home, and was included in a collection of historic homes in 1949 by historian Adah Dye.
William W. Work, a Civil War veteran, arrived in Olympia in about 1881. He was a house painter. Their daughter Muriel Work Bartram lived here after her parents.
More information:
Washington State Historical Society photographs (enter the following catalog numbers in Collections Search box): C1964.26.4.3.5 (unscanned photo circa 1949)
W.W. Work family information from Ancestry.com, accessed May 30, 2012
For more information about Samuel Woodruff, see Residents section of this website, as well as Woodruff Building
Copyright © 2022 Deborah Ross