Location: 416 Sid Snyder Ave NW
Washington State Capitol National Historic District
Territorial Capitol at statehood, 1889, Photo from Digital Archives |
Legislative Building today (2012), Photo from Wikimedia Commons |
The first purpose-built legislative building was located at the far southern end of then-Main Street (now Capitol Way), at a location that now houses Capitol Campus. At the time, it was far from the commercial core of Olympia, and legislators, lobbyists and others found it difficult to find suitable lodging or transportation. Yet the building continued to serve as the Capitol building until about 1901, when it was decided to purchase Thurston County’s grand building in the center of town (see Old State Capitol Building). In the 1910s, the state approved the Wilder and White plan for the seat of government; it took until 1928, however, until the primary buildings of this plan were completed with the final touches on the current Legislative Building.
There are abundant on-line resources about the Legislative building and its history, including many pictures of the damage done to the building in the 1949, 1965, and 2001 earthquakes, the Wilder and White plan, and many photographs. The following resources are a sampling:
Digital Archives: Territorial Capitol Building TC1, TC2, TC3; Legislative Building construction LB1; earthquake damage LB2
Department of Enterprise Services, Capitol Facts
Wikipedia article, Washington State Capitol
Washington State Historical Society photographs (enter the following catalog numbers in Collections Search box): C2018.0.104 (Territorial Capitol); 1943.42.1403; C1985.12.19, C1985.12.25 (1949 earthquake), C1977.44.14 (Leg. building soon after completion (a search of the WSHS on-line catalogue will bring up approximately 200 photographs of the building)
Washington State Capitol National Historic District
DAHP report on Legislative Building
Wilder and White article by Allen Miller for Olympia Historical Society newsletter
Bird’s Eye View of Olympia 1979 (see location #1 on map)
Copyright © 2022 Deborah Ross