In the early 1900s, as the new State Capitol began to take shape on the hill above downtown, hundreds of brand new homes sprang up around the Capitol Campus. Suddenly everyone in Olympia, from lumber barons to streetcar conductors, wanted to live on top of the bluff in the lee of the capitol dome.

Today the South Capitol Neighborhood is a National Register Historic District of more than 400 well-preserved properties. Nearly every popular housing style of the early 20th century, from storybook English cottages to classic Craftsman bungalows, can be found along its streets. At its heart stands handsome Lincoln School, a Mission Revival design by architect Joseph Wohleb, built in 1922 and restored in the 1990s. There are even two genuine mansions, also designed by Wohleb: the Mediterranean-style Lord House (now the State Capital Museum) and the stout, English-Renaissance McCleary Mansion, now transformed into office space.

But most of this old-fashioned neighborhood remains staunchly residential, full of broad porches, ambling alleys and blowsy cottage gardens. In autumn its star attraction is the street called Maple Park Drive, a boulevard planted from end to end with sugar maple trees. Hazard Stevens, son of Washington's first Territorial Governor Isaac I. Stevens, planted the first stand of maples here in 1871; today's trees replaced the originals in 1971.

The South Capitol Neighborhood Historic District is located on both sides of Capitol Way between 15th and 26th Avenues SE. A neighborhood walking tour brochure is available at the State Capitol Visitor Center, 14th Avenue SE at Capitol Way.

South Capitol Neighborhood. Olympia Heritage Commission photo.

The McCleary Mansion, a South Capitol Neighborhood landmark. ©Jeffers Studio photo from the Susan Parish Collection.