New building techniques of the late 1800s led to complex, elaborate houses quite unlike the boxy plank homes of the early pioneers. Local sawmills churned out railings, shingles and fancy brackets at a price that even modest households could afford. The exuberant, highly decorated houses of this age, though commonly called "Victorian", are correctly classified as Queen Anne Revival style.

The Byrd House, built in 1891 by Mary Ellen White Byrd and her husband George, is one of Olympia's few remaining examples of the full-blown Queen Anne style. It features a typically asymmetrical shape with multiple rooflines, bay windows and a prominent two-story porch. Fancy exterior details include turned porch posts, elaborate cornices, beaded spindlework and shingles of every shape and description.

Mrs. Byrd came west on the Oregon Trail with her mother, brothers and sisters in 1851 to join the patriarch of the family, who had made the journey before them. All of the White family women chose to make their Olympia homes within a few blocks of each other. Oldest sister Anne Elizabeth White Bigelow resided on nearby Glass Avenue. Younger sister Clara White Dunbar lived up the street in the well-preserved house at 1118 Olympia Avenue. Their widowed and remarried mother, Margaret Stewart White Ruddell, made her home in a house that still stands, though much altered, at 901 Olympia Avenue.

The Byrd House is located on Olympia Avenue NE, between East Bay Drive and Puget Street. It is listed on both the National and Washington State Registers of Historic Places, as well as on the Olympia Heritage Register. The house is privately owned and not open to the public.

Byrd House. Olympia Heritage Commission photo.

The Byrd House as it appeared around 1915. Long-time owner Alameda Ross Young is shown here with her family. Olympia Heritage Commission Collection, courtesy of Mildred Greenwalt.