Fraternal organizations were a popular social outlet for both professional and working-class (but mainly Caucasian) men in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Masons, Oddfellows and Elks all built splendid meeting halls on Olympia's Capitol Way, and both the Masons and Oddfellows established local cemeteries.

The 1914 Barnes Building also included a fraternal meeting hall. Its ground floor contained commercial storefronts, including a grocer's called Bolster and Barnes that had stood on the site since 1902. The building's second story, distinguished by arched art-glass windows, was originally the headquarters of a fraternal organization called the Knights of Pythias. By the years of the Great Depression, however, the Knights were struggling financially. In 1937 they sold their meeting house to the Oddfellows, whose own imposing hall had been gutted by fire the previous year.

Olympia Lodge No. 1 of the Oddfellows, the first Oddfellows Lodge organized in Washington Territory, still meets in this building today. A florist shop on the ground floor is directly descended from the Barnes and Bolster grocery, making it one of Olympia's oldest continually operating businesses.

The Barnes Building is located on Fourth Avenue SW between Columbia and Water Streets. It is listed on the Washington State Register of Historic Places, as well as on the Olympia Heritage Register. The building is open to the public.

Barnes Building. Olympia Heritage Commission photo.

Bolster and Barnes Store. Photograph courtesy of the Barnes Family.