Why Olympia is the way it is (Eastside Street edition)
I have spent the last few weeks with Daniel Garcia of the Heal Olympia project, producing a series of candidate and issue episodes for the Olympia Standard. Before that, I spent a couple of weeks with Erika Lari doing a similar series about the Olympia School District races. Bringing new people in to the podcast, in a sustained fashion, is an important step for me to really make the Standard what it was always meant to be, a community project.
Daniel also recently wrote an essay for Works in Progress that inspired me to solve (at least partially) the mystery of why Eastside Street isn’t more important or useful.
Why Is Eastside Street Like This? A Small History of Olympia’s Streets
Ever wonder why some streets in Olympia seem to stop for no reason, why vacant lots sit untouched, or why a neighborhood feels like it’s divided by invisible walls? These quirks aren’t random, they’re history frozen in asphalt and parcel lines. Take Eastside Street: a road that almost, but never quite, connects southeast and northeast Olympia. Its story is a window into the city’s past, when rapid development, economic booms, and hurried platting shaped the streets we navigate today.
Inspired by Daniel Garcia’s essay, What Do You Think Olympia Should Look Like?, I’ve been thinking a lot about the questions he raises:
Why did that restaurant close? What is that smell? Why hasn’t anything been built on that vacant lot? Why isn’t downtown more bikeable? Why do so many places close by 8 p.m.? Why was the Artesian Well abandoned?
These are questions that local media might usually tackle. But as we’ve seen, between The Olympian and the JOLT, so many of these questions go unanswered. For me, there are tons of them.
Why isn't Eastside the main street on... the Eastside?
One of my longest-standing questions has been: Why doesn’t Eastside Street connect the neighborhoods north of the 4th and State corridor with those to the north?
Eastside effectively ends at State Avenue (even though it technically continues north for another block). Puget Street picks up the role of main drive through the northeast neighborhood, a block east of where Eastside stops. So if you want to go from southeast Olympia to northeast Olympia (or vice versa) you have to dogleg down either 4th or State to get from one quarter of the city to another.
It seems like Eastside could have continued north at some point. But it doesn’t. So why not? The answer lies in the plats that make up Eastside along the corridor.
Eastside Street first appears as part of Swan’s Addition to Olympia in 1871, a significant part of the city that lay east of the Swantown Slough, which partially cut off this side of town from downtown Olympia.
As Washington transitioned from territory to full-fledged statehood in 1889–1890, there was a massive surge in development, anticipating population growth and economic benefits of statehood. This boom lasted until the economic crash of 1893. We can trace this history in the explosion of plats filed with the Auditor’s Office between 1889 and 1891.
This is where the heart of the stunted Eastside Street lies. In early 1889, still months before statehood, the Van Epps and Wiman plat cut off the corridor that Eastside Street in Swan’s plat would have used to connect neighborhoods. Quince Street was recognized in this plat, but Eastside was not.
Months later, the Terrace plat recognized Eastside again — but only partially. An oddly oversized parcel on the south side of this plat (now the site of an apartment complex) disrupted continuity.
Then, just a few weeks later, the College Heights plat north of Terrace included an Eastside Street, but slightly off-center from Terrace’s. , So, even if Eastside had connected through Van Epps and Terrace, it would include the strangely inconvenient dogleg. I suspect this was a result of the rapid pace of development in the year following statehood: planners simply didn’t coordinate across plats.
It is also worth noting that, Swan’s Addition in 1871 also didn’t connect directly to Van Epps; it ended at the current Legion Way. It wasn’t until the McLenndan (1905) and Pattison (1901) plats were laid out that Eastside finally met Van Epps.
This detail of an 1890 map of Olympia during the post statehood boom gives you the proper context of the Eastside route and the land it. Lying right in the middle is Van Epps.
Addressing the possible punch through?
But what if nothing had ever been built where Eastside terminated at Van Epps? Why didn't later planners just punch a road through to Terrace?
Looking at the current parcel map, it seems like there’s an opportunity to “punch through” Eastside. The current house at 1032 Olympia Ave NE, was built in 1940, might give the impression that we had decades to finish the street. But that home replaced an earlier one, meaning the corridor was never fully clear. The most convincing evidence is from Brian Hovis' presentation of the Sanborn maps at OlympiaHistory.org. There you see a residential house on the 1908 map.
Lessons from Eastside Street
So what do we take from the story of Eastside, in a "why is Olympia the way it is" point of view?
People weren’t paying attention in the pivotal year of 1890. While Eastside shows up in some plats, it doesn’t appear in all, making continuous construction impossible.
Rapid development and platting ignored overall city planning, in this case. What might seem like an odd street today is the product of historical accidents, economic cycles, and fragmented decision-making. Many of the plats you see before the invention of car-centered, cul-de-sac development took into consideration the square block alignment of the city, to ensure an orderly development of the city. But this time it didn't.
The Olympia Standard: Berendt vs. Geiger and Prop 1
This is the last episode Daniel Garcia from the Heal Olympia project hosted for the recent series on city council candidates. This time, sitting down with long-timer Paul Berendt and newcomer Caleb Geiger.
We also released an episode on Proposition 1, which, unless I’m mistaken, is the only-face to face conversation between the Yes and No camps on the Workers Bill of Rights in Olympia (Prop 1).
What else you should be reading or listening to this week
Range Media in Spokane is the very model of a local media organization that digs deep and takes honest looks at their community. Their recent podcast episode on the impact of Charlie Kirk’s impact on the Inland Empire is a must listen.
Speaking of other podcasts, with the death of KXXO, Dick Pust’s Your Community Podcasts are probably also dying. Which makes this little gem all the more precious. In a paid segment, in which guest Rachelle Martin treats as a not-paid segment, Dick earnestly asks the progressive candidate for Tumwater City Council questions without betraying much depth or his own conservative for Olympia politics. It is amazing. It only follows Pust’s own appearance in Your Daily Hour With Me 14 years ago as the oddest interview in Olympia and nearby politics.
And speaking of radio stations, KAOS is doing a blog series on their DJs. It is a good thing.
Balls and Strikes writes up Washington Supreme Court Justice Sal Mungia condemning the racist foundations of federal Indian law in a concurrence to Flying T Ranch v. Stillaguamish Tribe, in which he calls on judges to denounce white supremacist precedents even while bound by them.
Thank you for reading! If you want to get in touch with me, feel free to email me at emmettoconnell at gmail dot com