This charming Queen Anne-style cottage was built for Captain Calvin Hale and his second wife, Pamela Case Hale. Calvin Hale was a shipbuilder from New England who served a term in the Maine state legislature before bringing his young family west to Olympia in 1851. He served in the first Washington Territorial legislature, as Thurston County coroner and on the first board of regents of the University of Washington. He was appointed in 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln to the post of Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Washington Territory, a job of considerable prestige.

After the death of his first wife, Hale married Pamela Case in 1872. The second Mrs. Case was a respected schoolteacher, an astute businesswoman and a founding member of the Olympia Woman's Club. In 1882 she became the first woman ever elected as Thurston County's superintendent of public schools.

That was also the year that the Hales built their delightful Victorian cottage. The Hale House, though small in scale, captures all the spirited elements of the popular Queen Anne style: irregular profile and floor plan, steeply pitched roof, large front porch, elaborate use of fancy shingles, turned posts and other decorative millwork.

The Hale House is located in northeast Olympia, one block east of Puget Street at the corner of Tullis and Pine. It listed on both the National and Washington State Registers of Historic Places, as well as on the Olympia Heritage Register. The house is a private residence and is not open to the public.

Hale House. Olympia Heritage Commission photo.

Pamela Hale. State Capital Museum, Washington State Historical Society.