Before extensive dredging and filling took place on the Olympia waterfront, this ornate Victorian apartment house stood right at the edge of the tidal shoreline. It was built in 1891, just after Washington statehood, by indomitable schoolteacher and real estate investor Pamela Case Hale. Other projects backed by Hale included a local gasworks company and the 1890 Olympia Hotel.

Located near both the Richardson's and Springer Lumber Mills, this woodframe building was known for a time as the Allen House Hotel and appears to have served a primarily working-class clientele. Its elaborate Italianate styling and multi-bay townhouse design would be right at home on the steep streets of San Francisco - though the style was falling from fashion by the time these apartments were built. Nicely restored at the turn of the 21st century, the Jefferson Apartments serve as a tangible link to the age when sawmills screeched and whined on Olympia's waterfront.

The Jefferson Apartments are located on the southeast corner of Jefferson Street and State Avenue. The building is listed on both the National and Washington State Registers of Historic Places, as well as on the Olympia Heritage Register. The apartments are private residences and are not open to the public.

Jefferson Apartments. Olympia Heritage Commission photo.