Olympia Historical Society

The history surrounding Puget Sound is nuanced with layers of treaties and cultural influence from the native people who lived here thousands of years before us. Much of the land on which we currently grow our business was local. In school we are taught about the history of Washington State about how the entire state was created with the help of the indigenous people who lived here before us.

The European settlers found Olympia in 1853, originally claiming it as Oregon’s territory. It was only named as the capital in 1889, when Washington also became an official state territory. There was a family called the Bigelow’s, whose house is still in east Olympia, near Reeves Middle School. It has been estimated to be there around the late 1860s, although no one can be sure. In the late 1990s, the descendants of the family decided to help commemorate Olympia’s history – and with the help of the community, it became the Bigelow House Museum.

It’s now known as an organization called the Olympia Historical Society. Although both officially known as the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum, this non-profit organization of a group of board members and active volunteers come together to help preserve and commemorate Olympia’s history. That’s their main goal, and they are filled with dedicated people that help organize it, to help upkeep and preserve. The main statement for the Olympia Historical Society is to help preserve and commemorate Olympia’s history. On their website they have hundreds of resources that backdate Olympia’s history, cataloging them for the public to be able to view.  offers photos, videos, and articles of Olympia’s past.

One of the board members, Greg Griffith talked about this in an interview. He talked about how the house has been redone over the years. The original front door is in the same place, facing the bay downtown.  Over the years, the 160 acres have been reduced to a few. The Bigelow’s gave out land to their family and neighbors as inflation grew up. When one faces towards the bay from the front door, it is covered by dozens of new houses that have sprouted up in the past hundred years. 

What makes the Bigelow’s special though, was their permanent advocacy in the city. They strived for education throughout the city and were a big influence on the city of Olympia. One of the original Bigelow’s – Daniel R. Bigelow – was a territorial leader that helped lead Olympia to where it is today. His wife, Ann Elizabeth White Bigelow, was one of the first teachers within the district. Their family strived for the women’s suffrage movement and public education. The city wouldn’t have been the same without their early influence in protests.

With active volunteers in the community, in the 1990s their descendants founded the Olympia Historical Society. They kept up with the active community, and when they eventually stepped away from their ancestral household, they gave it over to the Olympia Historical Society, also known as OHS. The Olympia Historical Society is one of the main foundations that strive to keep Olympias’s history, preserving it for the future. As the state capital, it’s important to keep the history of the city because of the deep depth it allows people to research. With a huge database, it’s the perfect place for research concerning the capital of Washington and the rich past that it possesses.

They’re doing an important job of upholding history – preserving it for the future to see. With a new era coming to the small organization, tours are coming back to the Bigelow Museum, highlighting the old household’s history and what they contain. The non-profit is slowly emerging into a new era, focusing on diversity, and connecting resources to people. Olympia is the capital of Washington, but it’s so much more than that, it’s a place that holds. The resources that are compiled on their website speak of the rich history that it offers to Washington and to the individuals that helped make it up for the past two centuries. Visit the Olympia Historical Society to learn the rich details that it has to offer about our capital city. With succeeding in that mission, preserving the roots that had us here in the first place. It’s important to support nonprofits that help preserve the past and now the future of Olympia.

They have now since started up tours again, for two Sundays a month. The next one is June 4th and 11th at 1pm. The Bigelow Museum is a great place to learn about one of the first pioneers of Olympia, the Bigelow family, and how they made Olympia a better place by advocating for it. Support your local non-profit, to help them continue to preserve Olympia’s history!

Check out their website here: https://olympiahistory.org/