DAHP's Home Set to Experience Major Rehab Work starting 9/30/19

Beginning Monday September 30th, visitors to the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation's office in Olympia will notice major changes underway. The State Department of Enterprise Services (DES), which serves as the property management agency for state government, will begin a major rehabilitation project on our building including repair and securing of the sandstone veneer and repair of the original historic windows. Now called Capitol Court, the National Register of Historic Places listed building was built in 1930 as the Thurston County Courthouse with assistance from the Depression-Era Works Progress Administration (WPA) and designed by prolific local architect Joseph Wohleb. After the County moved to new offices in 1978, the property was vacated and turned over to the State of Washington, which used the yard for parking. In 1989, the building was rescued from demolition by legislators who sought to use the site for parking, when a private developer stepped forward to do a complete rehabilitation of the building and take advantage of historic preservation tax incentives. 

Now home to several state agenices and DAHP since 2015, the work in 2019 marks the most comprehensive preservation work on the building since the 1990s rehabilitation.  The building will be incased in scaffolding and and openings covered with plywood as the windows will be removed, repaired on site, and then re-installed...in keeping with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. Also, the exterior Tenino sandstone veneer will be removed, cleaned, and re-installed with new and more secured anchoring. The project is scheduled to last into early 2020 so in the meantime, visitors and building occupants will experience disruption to parking, access to the building, construction noise, and window openings covered with plywood. For more information about the project, follow this link: https://des.wa.gov/services/facilities-leasing/capitol-campus/buildings/capitol-court-building/building-projects.