Olympia Brewing Company was a major industrial employer in Olympia for over 100 years. Leopold Schmidt founded the company in 1896 at the base of the Deschutes River, at the southern end of the West Bay inlet (now upriver from Capital Lake). The company survived Prohibition my making juice. After Prohibition ended, the company expanded to a more modern factory further upriver in the town of Tumwater.
BreweryGems offers a summery of the company's early years.
For over half a century, Olympia Beer was a popular regional brand. It was not exactly a gourmet product, but it sold well in the pre-micro-brew era.
Trouble came in the 1980s. Various corporate buyouts and mergers ruined the company, and in 2003, SABMiller closed the Tumwater facility permanently. A fire damaged part of the complex in 2018. Today, these ugly warehouses and buildings sit unused and partly vandalized.
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| Original Olympia brewhouse with the Deschutes River in the foreground (Hasselblad 80mm lens) |
The former brewery occupies two locations. The old brick buildings from the original site are just north of Tumwater Falls facing the Deschutes River (see the first photograph). The site has access via only one road, whose the gate has ominous warning signs about video surveillance and trespassing. The only view now is from the Tumwater Historical Park across the river.
The second site is south of the falls on the flat floodplain of the Deschutes River. As you approach Olympia from southern Washington on Interstate 5, ugly tan block-like industrial buildings mar the view. These are the remains of the Tumwater part of the complex. The best view is from Capital Boulevard SE, which was formerly Rte 99. The bridge crosses over railroad tracks and walkways that once connected the buildings. The following photographs are from the bridge.
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| Warehouses with Deschutes River in foreground (Fuji Acros film, 21mm ƒ/4.5 Biogon lens) |
Railroad tracks approached from the south to a long warehouse complex. It is unused now.
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| Former power plant (21mm Biogon lens) |
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| (Kodak T400CN film, Leica IIIC camera, 5 cm ƒ/2 Summiter lens) |
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| August 20, 2024, Kodak Panatomic-X, Hasselblad 501CM, 80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens, yellow filter |
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| Panatomic-X film, 250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens, YG filter |
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| Semi-modern 1960s architecture. Capital Blvd. is to the right. |
The Tumwater site is secure and locked. A security guard in a silver car drove around the day I took these photographs. You can see his car in the photo above. We waved at each other.
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| Rail line that leads to the lower brew buildings and on to Olympia |
One day, I would like to take some ground level photos of the site. An employee of the city of Tumwater sent me a contact, but I have not called yet. This kind of industrial setting interests me and offers photographic opportunities with graphic patterns and shapes.
Most of the photographs above are on Fuji Acros film from my Leica M2. The light was harsh, and the negatives are too contrasty. I need to remember to avoid the harsh mid-summer. My new Zeiss 21mm ƒ/4.5 Biogon lens (for Leica M mount) provides superb resolution. With a lens this wide, you need to be careful to avoid converging vertical lines. I need more practice.
