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Olympia in 1884 and would later serve as mayor, had worked as a clerk for Toklas & Kaufman for several years upon arriving in
Olympia before going into the real estate field. Within a few years of opening Mottman's had replaced Kaufman's as Olympia's leading department store and when Kaufman retired in 1899, Mottman purchased the building and moved his store into the space. In 1911, he commissioned Tacoma architects Heath & Gove to completely remodel the building by opening up the first floor storefronts and adding a third floor which included the installation of Olympia's first elevator. The renovations involved removal of much of the cast iron elements and smoothing away most of the original architectural details however the original cornice was saved and reattached to the third floor. With the Olympic lettering removed the building became known as the Mottman Building. The building survived the
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have their own building constructed, eventually choosing the opposite corner of the intersection. They coordinated with Samuel
Williams to build a large two-story building on his prominent corner lot previously occupied by Williams' family home and hardware store. The Williams house was moved off of the lot and ground was broken in May 1888 and the building was mostly completed by November by contractor J.W. Roberts. They christened the building the Olympic Block, after the city but it was still commonly referred to as the Williams Block. Italianate in design with cast-iron details and a galvanized iron cornice, manufactured locally, the new building would be fully occupied by the dry goods store. A unique feature of the original building was a detached 2-story brick lavatory, that was accessed by a
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and build that city's first brick building in 1891. In
Olympia, Toklas and Kaufman opened their original store at the southeast corner of Capitol Way S and 4th Ave E but they soon outgrew the space and in 1888, Toklas' son Nathan, recently returned from running their Spokane store, convinced them to
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The original occupant of the
Mottman Building was the dry goods store of Gallewski Kaufman, one of the state's most prominent mercantile men in the later 19th century. With partner Ferdinand Toklas they ran Olympia's (and reportedly Southwest Washington's) largest dry goods house, the New York Cash
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by Samuel
Williams for Toklas & Kaufman to house their department store, the building was remodeled and expanded to its current state in 1911 by prominent Olympia realtor and eventual mayor George Mottman, whose own department store, the Mottman Mercantile, occupied the building until 1967. It
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In 1894, Toklas retired and turned the
Olympia and Aberdeen stores over to Kaufman and his sons. 1 year later George A. Mottman started his own dry goods store in the Stewart Block, once located at the Northeast corner of Capitol Way S & Legion Way SE. Mottman, a native of Germany who came to
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from the second story. An unadorned 1-story brick building directly to the north was built by
Williams in tandem with the Olympic to fill the lot between it and the brick Olympic Hardware Company building. The total cost of the two buildings at the time was $ 18,000 (roughly $ 493,000 in 2020).
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Store. Toklas, who had strong retail connections in New York, was also a partner in Toklas & Singerman (The San
Francisco Store), Seattle's largest dry goods house at the time dating back to the early 1870s. With Kaufman and his children, Toklas would later open a branch stores in
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with significant damage but unlike many of
Olympia's other 19th century structures, retained all of its floors. Mottman's continued to operate in the building until going out of business in 1967.
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is an historic commercial building located at the
Northwest corner of Capitol Way N & 4th Ave W in downtown
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450:. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. 8 September 1899. p. 3
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334:"National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Mottman Building"
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National Register of Historic Places in Thurston County, Washington
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National Register of Historic Places listings in Washington (state)
418:"Olympia: A Brief Review of the Past [Some New Buildings]"
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424:. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. 28 Dec 1888
369:. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. 25 May 1888
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History of the National Register of Historic Places
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823:Department store buildings in the United States
818:Italianate architecture in Washington (state)
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35:U.S. National Register of Historic Places
248:. Originally constructed in 1888 as the
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828:Commercial buildings completed in 1888
309:"National Register Information System"
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202:Heath & Gove (1911 reconstruction)
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255:National Register of Historic Places
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474:Pacific Builder & Engineer
332:Richard F. Brown (June 1983).
270:(The Great Eastern Store) and
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76:Show map of Washington (state)
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398:. Olympia Historical Society
16:United States historic place
754:National Historic Landmarks
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448:The Washington Standard
422:The Washington Standard
367:The Washington Standard
207:Architectural style
286:1949 Olympia earthquake
772:Keeper of the Register
480:(11): 107. 9 Sep 1911.
144:47.04500°N 122.90056°W
792:Contributing property
351:accompanying pictures
338:National Park Service
319:National Park Service
149:47.04500; -122.90056
759:Bridges and Tunnels
321:. November 2, 2013.
246:Olympia, Washington
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116:Olympia, Washington
114:101 Capitol Way N,
470:"Heath & Gove"
396:Olympiahistory.org
392:"Mottman Building"
253:was listed on the
171:less than one acre
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602:Grays Harbor
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452:. Retrieved
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371:. Retrieved
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343:December 17,
341:. Retrieved
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747:Other lists
707:Walla Walla
428:17 December
402:17 December
373:17 December
155:Union Block
147: /
134:122°54′02″W
122:Coordinates
807:Categories
454:15 January
292:References
211:Italianate
153: (
131:47°02′42″N
702:Wahkiakum
682:Snohomish
612:Jefferson
529:by county
257:in 1983.
213:(Altered)
199:Architect
697:Thurston
677:Skamania
667:San Juan
647:Okanogan
627:Kittitas
592:Garfield
587:Franklin
567:Columbia
272:Aberdeen
225:83003354
111:Location
717:Whitman
712:Whatcom
692:Stevens
687:Spokane
652:Pacific
637:Lincoln
577:Douglas
572:Cowlitz
557:Clallam
268:Spokane
261:History
189: (
181: (
722:Yakima
672:Skagit
662:Pierce
622:Kitsap
607:Island
552:Chelan
547:Benton
542:Asotin
277:Skyway
187:, 1911
642:Mason
632:Lewis
597:Grant
582:Ferry
562:Clark
537:Adams
527:Lists
349:With
176:Built
617:King
456:2021
430:2020
404:2020
375:2020
345:2020
240:The
191:1911
183:1888
179:1888
168:Area
220:No.
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478:12
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
