The State’s Office is a ‘Sailor’s Boarding House’: Olympia’s Desperate Search for a Capitol

Olympia, Wash. — Special: Representative Collins will introduce a bill in the House providing for the erection of a temporary building in Olympia for the use of state officers. The importance of such a building is recognized by all cognizant of the deplorable condition of State officers' headquarters, and there is not a doubt that the bill will speedily prove suitable.

The officers are now scattered all over the city. The governor and treasurer are in one building; the auditor, secretary of state, superintendent of schools, and land commissioner in others. Some of them are hardly fit for a sailor's boarding house. In fact, to reach the different officials, one must run all over town and crawl up rickety stairways, through dark entrances to some badly-lighted and miserably-ventilated room, where the trustees of certain departments hold forth. Valuable records are stored away in sheds for want of vault room.

The secretary of state's office, in particular, is in a deplorable condition. In case of fire or robbery, what might be destroyed or stolen would result in irreparable injury and loss. In view of these facts, state officers and others conversant with the situation ask that something be done immediately.

Ever since the organization of the supreme court, commissioners have been held under adverse circumstances, owing to the miserable quarters allotted it. The court now is held in three or four different places, in most cases where the average attorney dislikes to enter, not to mention the feelings of the dignified members of the highest tribunal in the state.

Representative Collins' bill will ask that the sum of $100,000 be appropriated for the purchase of a suitable plot of ground, contiguous to the business center of Olympia, and the erection and furnishing thereon of a building for the use of state officers and for other state purposes. The governor, lieutenant governor, and state treasurer shall constitute the board of commissioners that shall within sixty days after the passage of the bill select such ground in their judgment may be best adapted to carry out the purposes of the act.

Lieutenant-Governor Laughton's endorsement is secured, and he is very much interested in the issue. He stated to a correspondent of the POST-INTELLIGENCER this evening that if the legislature acted favorably upon the bill, the commission having the matter in charge would purchase a site for the building somewhere near the Olympia hotel, 120 by 135 feet in area.

Several sites have already been offered, ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 in value. A sketch for the building has already been submitted to the lieutenant governor by an Olympia architect. It is considered an admirable plan and will meet the state's present requirements. The lieutenant governor's idea is to use but 60 by 120 feet building on the corner, and reserving the other sixty feet front for whatever purpose it may be needed.

The elevation of the plan shows it to call for a three-story building above the basement, which, owing to the fact that it is several feet above the ground, would make in reality another story. The basement and first story are to be of cut sandstone; the two remaining stories of pressed brick. Appropriate ornaments emblematic of the state will add beauty to the front and side elevations.

Although the outside of the building is attractive, special pains have been taken with the interior arrangements for the convenience and comfort of the officials. Passing through a large entrance in the center to the first door will be found the offices en suite of the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, and land commissioner. On the second floor will be found the superintendent of public instruction, attorney general, clerk of the supreme court, adjutant general, state mineralogist and geological observer, and state geologist's office.

Extending across the front of the third door the supreme court room will be found, with a bench for each justice, and a conning room. The state library will also be located on this floor, provided with a large room. The basement is reached through a wide and imposing entrance on the side street, and will be divided into ten large committee rooms and a corridor.

It is thought best that the members get along as well as they can until a permanent capitol building is provided for and completed. Lieutenant-Governor Laughton says that $5,000 expended on the present building will make it comfortable and suggests that a small appropriation might be made for such purpose.