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Olympia -- Thumbnail History

The Olympia area was well established by 1853 thanks to the Hudson's Bay Company's nearby Fort Nisqually and Puget Sound Agriculture Company, the early U.S. settlement at Tumwater, and Catholic missionary activity. The discovery of coal and a good harbor boosted the pioneer economy and Olympia served as the terminus of the Cowlitz Trail, the northern extension of the Oregon Trail, where settlers could transfer from foot and wagons to canoes and ships and spread outward along the shores of Puget Sound. The town grew with its own economy as Washington grew as a state, in addition to serving as the seat of government from 1853 to the present time.
File 5105: Full Text >

Olympia Capitol -- A History of the Building

Modern-day visitors to Olympia's capitol campus are justly impressed by the main Legislative Building's 278-foot-high dome and the equally broad-shouldered edifices that surround that central structure. Architecture critics have called the arrangement a watershed in American capitol construction. Yet building the Washington state capitol was in no way an easy task. Not only were there daunting costs and delays involved, but even upon its completion in 1924, critics derided it as a waste of tax dollars.
File 5443: Full Text >

Washington State Library

The Washington State Library was established by the organic act which created Washington Territory in 1853, and it has served as the official library for state government since Washington gained statehood in 1889. The library's collection began with fewer than 2,000 volumes collected by first Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens (1818-1862) and shipped around the Horn of South America. It would grow to number more than 547,000 books, periodicals, and documents at its peak in the late 1990s. An executive agency located in Olympia for most of its existence, the Washington State Library was transferred to the office of the Secretary of State in 2002 and physically relocated to an office park in Tumwater, Washington, in 2001 as a result of drastic budget cuts.
File 5271: Full Text >