Don’t forget to take care of your Legislative Building!
From the desk of Sean Lanksbury. PNW & Special Collections Librarian
Otherwise, you might end up with the sight you have before you: rotting timber, broken windows, and a sagging foundation. Egads! Long-time library volunteer Gordon Russ recently uncovered this undated image of Washington’s Territorial Legislative Building in disrepair while processing a portion of the State Library Special Collections.
The original capitol building was built for $5,000 appropriated by U.S. Congress as described in Section 13 of the Organic Act of 1853 and granted to newly appointed Governor Isaac Ingalls Stevens. Stevens used another $5000 to acquire volumes for the Washington Territorial Library and have them shipped to the new seat of government in Olympia, as described in Section 17 of that same document.
The building was never really finished to any condition that would be considered proper for housing government. The following description comes from “Historic Sites of the Washington State and Territorial Library: 1853 to the present”:
The building was built in 1856 on 12 acres donated by Edmund Sylvester. The new Legislative Building was described by historian Gordon Newell as a “wooden two-story structure that stood between where the present Legislative and Insurance Commissioner buildings now stand.” The building was hastily built and never really in an ideal state following its occupancy. Reports of the era described it as a “sad picture of melancholy dinginess” [Ex. Doc. 144, 43rd Congress, 2nd Session] and “in a sad state of repair” [Smith letter, 1868.11.01] with worn out furniture; “faded, soiled, and ragged carpets;” and a rotting wooden block foundation that had caused the building to slope toward one end. As described in 1874 by Henry J. Struve, Territory Secretary, the territorial Capitol Building was “left in an entirely unfinished condition” following its construction. He continues: “The walls of the main chambers, committee rooms, library, entrance halls, &c., have never been lathed, plastered, or painted, and a portion of the same were and remain to this day, covered with rough, unplanned boards with a coat of common whitewash.”
Eventually the building proved too small and ramshackle to use. The building served its original purpose until 1901 when the Legislature purchased the building that originally was built for use as the Thurston County Courthouse. 
The Library relocated to the Old Thurston Courthouse in 1901 and the Legislature moved in upon completing renovations in 1905. The Territorial Legislative building was destroyed in 1911 to make way for the new Legislative Building designed by architects Walter Wilder and Harry White (now celebrating 100 years) , and the new Capitol Campus, as envisioned by landscape design firm Olmstead Brothers.
The former Thurston County Courthouse continued to house most of the state agencies until 1919. The Legislature met there until the present Legislative Building was completed in 1928. That building was then kept to house the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and does so to this day.
Feeling inspired to do some research of your own? Feel free to begin your search by using the Washington State Library “Ask-a-Librarian” service!
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