Embracing the Capital City’s Rich Heritage

Heritage and culture form the heart and soul of any city. This fascinating and informative book explores the heritage and culture of some of the world’s most captivating capitals.

Olympia’s cultural scene is a mixture of quiet neighborhoods resembling slow-paced rural villages and bustling cosmopolitan districts with graceful colonial-era churches. The city also boasts a variety of restaurants and shops.

The Bigelow Family

With its unique attention to cultural excellence, walkability and sense of community, Olympia offers the perfect blend of urban living with serene beauty. Olympia’s natural parks, abundant water features and dense forests offer a wide variety of outdoor recreational experiences.

Originally occupied by coastal Salish native tribes, the area was first visited in 1792 by Peter Puget and his crew on the British Vancouver Expedition. Its rugged landscape aided strong lumber and oyster farming economies, and in the 1850s, Levi Lathrop Smith and Edmund Sylvester claimed the area that is now downtown Olympia.

Today, Olympia is known for its rich art scene. You’ll find local arts and crafts at the Old Town Artisan Fair, new shows at one of the area’s 5 theaters and the Olympia Film Festival. The Olympia Symphony Orchestra also has regular season concerts at the historic State Theater.

The Alexander Berkman Collective House

Olympia is a vibrant city with an active and interesting culture. Whether you want to visit the downtown restaurants and charming shops, or spend time in one of the many natural parks, you’re sure to have a great time!

The city’s most notable historic building is the state Capitol building, a beautiful neoclassical structure that is frequented by tourists and locals alike. The Capitol campus also features several memorials and gardens that are well worth visiting.

Another popular cultural destination is the Olympia Film Festival, a ten-day around-the-clock event that is completely volunteer-run. The festival is renowned throughout the world for its commitment to independent filmmakers and to fostering community relationships within the Olympia region. Local art is also a big draw for visitors to Olympia. The area has several visual arts venues, including Splash Gallery and the Washington Department of Ecology’s Art in Ecology program.

The Olympia Film Festival

The Olympia Film Festival (OFS) was established as a nonprofit in 1982 to enliven and enrich the community by presenting film, music and allied arts. OFS is proud to be the sole tenant and caretaker of Olympia’s historic Capitol Theater, where it continues its mission of bringing high-quality independent, international and classic films to the region.

The festival also supports local artists. By showcasing a variety of artistic expressions, the festival inspires creativity and sparks conversations about art, culture, and society.

On the regional level, Olympia IFF develops its activities through collaborations with networks and organizations, including the Federation of Film Societies and Pedagogical Group “Skasiarxeio”, educational institutions, bodies and municipal cinemas, which ensures that the festival’s activity extends to a wider audience than the one that attends the event. The festival also promotes its activities on a European scale through participation in the Creative Europe MEDIA festival support scheme.

The Olympia Public Library

When the era of steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie’s generous gifts to libraries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries came to an end, local citizens managed to secure funding for Olympia’s community library. A collection was assembled and housed in a building built in 1914 on the corner of Franklin and 7th Avenue. Designed by the architects Blackwell and Baker of Seattle with Olympia architect Joseph Wohleb, this was an unusual design for a Carnegie library of the time.

The library was a real institution in the new state of Washington, with residents paying $2.00 a year to become family card-holders and the Woman’s Club contributing funds for books.

By the 1930s, Olympia was a bustling port city with a dredged Budd Inlet that grew to include 29 blocks north of downtown, and timber mills lined its banks. With World War II, the port hummed with military ships carrying lend-lease equipment to the Soviet Union and then mothballs.