Note: this article is part three of a multi-part series on the Origins and the Historic Locations of the Washington Territorial Library.  If you have not read part one, please click here to access the article. If you missed only part two, click here.

Circa 1875-1877: Tacoma Hall

Tacoma Hall (front & center), circa 1869.

On July 1, 1875, the collection was disrupted again, having been moved to “Tacoma Hall,” a two-story structure located at Fourth Avenue and Columbia Street in Olympia. This was done as a temporary move due to repairs that were needed at the original Capitol Building. Built by Charles Williams in 1861 and originally dubbed the Olympia Building, it was purchased by Capt. D. B. Finch, owner and commander of the mail steamer that delivered between Olympia and Victoria. He donated this building in 1869 for the use of the Good Templars of Olympia, a Masonic fraternal order that advocated abstinence and temperance. Finch also donated a large number of books that would appeal to public reading demands and reserved a portion of the building for use as the first free lending library for the city of Olympia around August of 1868.

Tacoma Hall was the site of several historic events including the first meeting site of the Territorial Supreme Court. It was also the location where Susan B. Anthony spoke on her visit to Olympia on October 17 of 1871 to speak for women’s suffrage and the site of the first Washington Women’s Suffrage Association Convention in 1871. Part of the building was also the first free reading room or library in the city. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union also met here.

This building was known by many names over the course of its life: Olympia Building, Tacoma Hall, Tacoma Lodge, and Knights of the Good Templars Hall. For some period in time, the Territorial Library collection must have also been housed there. In 1875 the Territorial Legislature ordered by joint resolution that Territorial Librarian Frederick S. Holmes relocate the library from Tacoma Hall to the original Capitol Building, which stood on the Capitol Campus near the present-day Legislative Building. Holmes refused to execute this order.

The original Tacoma Hall is no longer. The building was replaced with another building in 1902. This new building then burned down and was subsequently replaced by the Barnes Building (also known as Knights of Pythias Building and Goodfellows Hall), which was built in 1911 and is still standing today.

1877-1891: Territorial Legislative Building 

Inauguration of Governor Ferry, 1889. Image courtesy of WA State Digital Archives.

The Legislature ordered the library’s relocation – again by joint resolution – in 1877.  Speaker of the House Elwood Evans was the author of the resolution and given that he had recently assumed the post of Territorial Librarian following Holmes’ vacating of the office, it was finally relocated to the old territorial Capitol Building.

During the library’s second occupancy of the old Legislative Building, it witnessed the appointment of Eliza Newell, the first woman to hold the office of Territorial Librarian and at the same time served as the residence of our 15^th Territorial Governor, William A. Newell. The collection also became the State Library upon our admittance into the union on November 11, 1889. In 1890 the Legislature authorized preparation for the first official catalog of the library’s holdings.  It was prepared by Philip D. Moore, the first official State Librarian, and published in 1891.  At that time Moore cataloged the law collection as separate from the general collection.

Both collections remained at the building until a move to the McKenny Building in 1891. 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 from the McKenny block to the new building from the Old Thurston Courthouse (for more information, click here) 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, and the new Capitol Campus, as envisioned by landscape design firm Olmstead Brothers.

Note: this article is part two of a multi-part series on the Origins and the Historic Locations of the Washington Territorial Library.  If you have not read part one, please click here to access the article.

Circa 11/1854: B.F. Kendall’s Building*

Benjamin Freeman Kendall

In November of 1854, the library was relocated to a small wood-frame building on Fourth and Main Street. Territorial Librarian B.F. Kendall had the structure built specifically to hold the library materials, the law insisting that it be housed “as convenient as possible to the house occupied by the legislative assembly.” [1854 Laws, pg. 415.]

“The legislators, holding a proprietary attitude toward the library, bridled at Kendall’s action; they fully expected the Territorial Library to be located under the same roof as themselves…” explains former State Librarian, Maryan Reynolds, in her history of the State Library, The Dynamics of Change.

In truth, the legislature had not had a building built specific to its needs up to this point. It met for its first session starting on February 27th, 1854, at the Gold Bar Restaurant on Second and Main in downtown Olympia [Newell History, pg.36] and then moved during the time of the Indian uprising to the Olympia Masonic Temple on Eighth and Main, meeting there from 1855 to 1856. [Stevenson, pg. 146.]  The building was still unfinished at the outbreak of the Indian Wars.

This demand for clarity over the location of the library stands to emphasize the collection’s value as a tool of both the government and its people. We are not sure as to when this building stopped being used as the library, but we place it at 1856, when a hastily constructed territorial Capitol Building was completed. The image we have of the two story structure is apparently not representative of the building as it stood from the late 1856-1863. The cupola, veranda and overall finished look of the site were added in 1875 (W. T. Jackson, PNQ, 36:3 pg. 262)

At some point Kendall’s original Fourth and Main building was demolished and replaced with the McKenny Building (built  in 1889), which also acted as a home for the collection, from 1891 to 1901.

*No picture of the B.F. Kendall building available. If you have an image or leads towards an image of this historic site, please contact us at [email protected]

1856-1875: Territorial Legislative Building*

Territorial Legislative Building, circa 1890’s. Image courtesy of WA State Digital Archives.

According to local historian George Blankenship, the library collection was shifted to the Old Territorial Legislative Building upon completion of its construction. [MS 37, “Paper read at the Olympia Public Library, 1932-11-08.”] 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 frame building, as described by Acting Governor Charles Mason, measured 40 feet by 68 feet, and two stories high.  The first floor held the House of Representatives and two small committee rooms.  The second floor held two additional committee rooms, the Council chamber and a room for the Territorial Library.

Again, the library was at the center of controversy – a much larger one than Kendall’s decision to locate it on 4th Avenue.  Maryan Reynolds again explains: “A sizable number of legislators sought to move the territorial capital from Olympia to Vancouver. Their first step was to pass a law requiring Territorial Librarian J.C. Head to move his office and the library to Vancouver between June 2 and August 1. Another law mandated a popular vote on the issue during July, which the legislators were certain would favor their cause. But Acting Governor McGill refused to permit the move, and the district court refused to require J.C. Head to show cause as to why he should not move the library.”

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 Sess.] and according to Ezra L. Smith in his letter entitled, “Estimate of the current expenses of the Legislative Assembly and Secretary’s Office of the Territory of Washington for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1870” the building was  “in a sad state of repair” 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.” Alongside this description, Struve requests the Secretary of the Interior approve $5,274.75 toward needed repairs and upgrades to the building, which the Secretary of the Interior affirms in a return correspondence, dated April 2, 1875. The repairs were completed by year’s end.

An interesting side note: Territorial Librarian John Paul Judson, a 24-year-old law student at the time of his appointment, actually lived in the Legislative Building during his year-long tenure.  He did this on practical grounds, claiming it was the best way to gain access to the resources he needed to support his education.

 *WSL has, to date, no pre-1889 pictures of the Territorial Legislative building. If you have an image or leads towards an image of this historic site during that time, please contact us at [email protected]

Next week: How the library came to share space with another library, and the struggle to move it back to the legislative building.

From the desk of Sean Lanksbury. PNW & Special Collections Librarian

As the Washington State Library nears its 160th anniversary, the staff here have been reflecting on the movement, growth, and development of the Library’s collections  and services from the Territorial up through this modern era – and the impact these factors have had on life of Washingtonians.

Follow us over the next few weeks as we trace the movement of the original Territorial Library Collection, which not only lives on at the Washington State Library, but as a part of the Washington State Law Library at the home of the State Supreme Court, also known as the Temple of Justice.  In later months we will focus on the transition of the Territorial Library into the State Library, as Washington State prepares to celebrate 125 years of Washington Statehood.

Introduction: Purchase and Delivery

The original books, maps, globes, and miscellaneous materials that made up the original Washington Territorial Library collection were secured using funds appropriated out of the Organic Act of March 2, 1853. This act was signed by President Millard Fillmore and provided $5,000 to the newly appointed Territorial Governor, Isaac I. Stevens, for purchases towards the library. Adjusting for inflation this amount is approximately equivalent to $135,950 in the year 2012. With these funds Stevens purchased books from H. Bailliere of London and C.B. Norton and Co. of New York City; collected archival documents from all the states of the union and made arrangements for the casing and portage of these materials through vendors in New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C.

The first 2,000 books left New York City on May 21, 1853 on the clipper Invincible.  The ship traveled around the Horn of South America to San Francisco, where the books were held briefly by the Port of San Francisco. The collection then traversed the waters from San Francisco to Olympia, arriving October 23, 1853 on the brig Tarquinia packed in “Massachusetts steamer trunks.” Since the day that brig touched shore, the Territorial Library moved quite a few times around Olympia.

1853: G.A. Barnes’ Warehouse*

George A. Barnes, c.1891

The first books arrived on Sunday, October 23, 1853, and were stored in an Olympia warehouse owned by G. A. Barnes. George A. Barnes was an eminent pioneer in the city’s history, a member of Olympia’s first Board of Trustees, and the proprietor of its first general mercantile. Barnes also established Barnes’ Hook & Ladder Brigade, the first volunteer fire department, around that same time. Alongside his many other achievements he established Olympia’s first bank, G.A. Barnes & Co., in 1884 [Jones, 337] and served a one-year stint as mayor of Olympia in 1880.
While we are not entirely certain of the exact location of Barnes’ warehouse, sources [Rathbun, pg.17] have placed his mercantile at the west end of what was then called 1st Street (now Thurston Avenue), near Percival Landing on the Olympia waterfront. It is likely that the warehouse was close or next to this mercantile. The books were stored at this warehouse until the arrival of newly appointed Territorial Governor Isaac I. Stevens on Friday the 25th of November. If we are correct in our placement of the location, there is a hotel of modern construction in its place today.

 *No picture of Barnes’ warehouse available. If you have an image or leads towards an image of this historic site, please contact us at [email protected]

Circa 11/1853-11/1854: Oblate Mission’s Buildings*

1860s Olympia WT – looking East across Budd Inlet. Bridge is 4th Ave. (Image courtesy of Bigelow House)

 
Sometime shortly following Stevens’ arrival, the materials were moved – likely to one of the two one-room, one-story buildings on the west side of Main Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues. These buildings, measuring 16 feet by 20 feet, had been rented by Governor Stevens for $900 a year from , a missionary of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a monastic Catholic order. One of these buildings was used by the Railroad Commission as it compiled its survey reports for the proposed route for the Northern Pacific Railroad. The other was used by the Stevens family upon their arrival in Washington [Nicandri, pg. 64.]
The first report of Steven’s Territorial Librarian appointee, Benjamin [Bion] Freeman Kendall – appointed February 28, 1854, and elected by the House of Representatives on April 17, 1854 – enumerated 2,130 books (the remaining purchase had arrived) and documents, including the two globes.

Father Pascal Ricard b.05-16-1805, d.01-09-1862

Father Ricard is best known for his establishment in June 1848 of Saint Joseph’s mission on the east side of Budd Inlet. That land is now preserved as Priest Point State Park. [Ibid, pg. 8] Sensing an Olympia growth boom, Father Tempier of Marseilles had Ricard purchase four lots for the downtown buildings in 1852 or 1853. These lots were the former site of the cabin belonging to Levi Lathrop Smith, Olympia’s co-founder and a tragic figure in Washington territorial history. Ricard did so, and placed the lots in the name of another member of the order, Brother George Blanchet, so as not to appear too land-hungry following his Priest Point purchase. The Oblate’s downtown buildings are long-gone and now the block is home to the Olympia Center, “a public facility open to all members of the community actively participating in programs or meetings.”

*No picture of the Oblate Buildings available. If you have an image or leads towards an image of this historic site, please contact us at [email protected]

Join us next week as the Territorial Collection moves into its first built to suit structure, and first brush with controversy!

[One bit of folklore concerning the Washington State Library Territorial Collection has to do with the original source of ownership for a dozen books, mostly vellum bound and chiefly dating back to the 1500s. When old catalogers gather around the campfire at night, they tell tales of the ancient books in WSL that were initially part of the library at the Catholic Mission in Priests Point, in north Olympia. And if this is fact, these library books predate all others in the Territorial Collection for length of Washington residency.

The WSL Manuscripts Collection includes an essay by educator L.M. Dimmitt entitled The Story of Priests’ Point, written in 1932. When WSL Diane Hutchins began to research the history of the Territorial Collection, she felt compelled to include the following note with Dimmitt’s piece. This effort earns her a Mythbusters medal. Here are her notes]

Notes regarding the titles mentioned on pages six and seven of “The Story of Priests’ Point” by L.M. Dimmitt (MS 354)

The Dimmitt article states on page six, “[w]ith the passing of St. Joseph d’Olympia the first spark of the old world culture to reach the Puget Sound country slipped from sight.  In recent years, from some unknown source [emphasis mine], many of the fine old books, some velum [sic] bound, have found their way into the State Library.”  The implication may be that these books had come from the old Mission.  When this article was written (1932), the detailed receipts generated by the purchase by Isaac Stevens of materials for the Territorial Library had not yet been microfilmed.  (This was not done by the National Archives until 1960.  This microfilm, covering book purchases made by Isaac Stevens in 1853, 1854, and 1855, may be found in the WSL collection.  The call number is NW MICRO 027.5797 UNITED 1960.)  Among those receipts is a four-page itemized list compiled by Charles B. Norton on June 8, 1854, and paid (“Voucher no 7”) by Isaac Stevens on August 30, 1854, in New York City.  On one of the margins of this voucher is the statement “I certify on honor that the above account is correct & just, and that I have actually, this thirtieth day of August 1854 paid the amt. thereof.  Isaac I. Stevens, Gov. Wash. Terr.”  Many titles in Latin, French, and Spanish appear in the list.  As demonstrated in the following table, all of the titles mentioned on pages six and seven of the Dimmitt article were included in the 1854 purchase.

Origin of Books Mentioned in “The Story of Priests’ Point” by L.M. Dimmitt

Research and notes by:  Diane Hutchins, Program Manager for Preservation and Access Services, Washington State Library.   11 September 2007.