Centralia Downtown Association expands Historic Walk

May 22-In honor of National Historic Preservation Month, the Centralia Downtown Association celebrated new additions to the Downtown Centralia Historic Walk with a tour on Wednesday.

The historic walk is "a growing public history project that celebrates the buildings, businesses and people who helped shape downtown Centralia," the Centralia Downtown Association stated in a news release before the event.

The next four historic plaques were unveiled on the tour, which began at 202 Centralia College Blvd.

The latest round of unveilings will recognize the Elks Building, Fox Theatre, Landers Building and Olympic Club. The Howell Hotel was also listed among the new additions, though a plaque wasn't available on Wednesday.

Each plaque highlights the historic name and construction date of the downtown properties, helping residents and visitors better understand the stories embedded in Centralia's historic streetscape, the news release stated.

Historic preservation is central to downtown revitalization, the release stated.

The Centralia Downtown Association's work reflects the Main Street approach of using historic assets as a foundation for long-term community and economic development.

Additional plaque unveilings will take place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27, as more properties are added to the Downtown Centralia Historic Walk.

The public is invited to attend and learn more about the newly recognized buildings.

For more information about the Downtown Centralia Historic Walk, and two see historical photos of the sites, visit downtowncentralia.org/historicwalk.

Here are the descriptions of the newly-added stops on the tour as provided by the downtown association:

Elks Building

Built in 1920, the building now known as Centralia Square began its life as the first permanent home of the Centralia Elks Club. Its construction marked an important moment in the city's civic development. By the early 1920s, Centralia was no longer simply a town shaped by timber, rail, and downtown trade; it was becoming a community with institutions, traditions, and gathering places built to last. The building was designed by Joseph H. Wohleb, a prominent Olympia architect best known for his long association with civic and institutional architecture in Washington's capital city. Centralia Square's own history identifies the structure as a 28,000-square-foot building owned and operated by the Elks from 1920 until 1986. During those decades, it served as a center of fraternal life, civic connection, celebration, and social memory. Within its walls, the Elks gathered for meetings, ceremonies, dinners, dances, and community events. Buildings like this played a vital role in early 20th-century cities: they were not simply clubhouses, but social anchors. They offered a place where business owners, professionals, families, and civic leaders could gather outside the formal spaces of government or commerce. The building's grand ballroom, guest rooms, and generous public spaces reflected that ambition. It was built not just to house an organization, but to express confidence in Centralia's future. After the Elks era ended, the building entered a new chapter. Centralia Square's history notes that it was sold in 1986 and redeveloped as the Centralia Square Antique Mall complex, with an adjoining restaurant. In 2013, the property was purchased by a local Centralia couple with the goal of restoring the second-floor Grand Ballroom and reopening the historic guest rooms to the public. The building's current use as Centralia Square Grand Ballroom & Hotel continues that pattern of reinvention, offering event space, boutique lodging, and restored historic character at the edge of downtown. Today, the former Elks Building stands as one of Centralia's clearest examples of adaptive reuse. Its story moves from fraternal hall to antique mall to restored event venue, but the core purpose has remained remarkably consistent: people gathering in a beautiful space to mark important moments. More than a century after it opened, the building still fulfills the promise of its original design. It remains a place of arrival, celebration, memory, and civic pride.

Fox Theatre

On a crisp evening in 1930, the glow of a new marquee lit up Tower Avenue, drawing a crowd that spilled out onto the sidewalk and into the street. Men in pressed coats and hats gathered near the entrance, while families and young couples lingered beneath the lights, waiting for the doors to open. Above them, bold letters announced the latest feature, flickering just enough to feel alive. Centralia had seen theaters before - but nothing quite like this. The Fox Theatre arrived at a moment when motion pictures were transforming how communities experienced entertainment. Built in the Art Deco style, its clean lines and modern presence stood as a signal that Centralia was not just growing - it was keeping pace with a rapidly changing world. Inside, the space carried the promise of escape: vaudeville acts, moving pictures, and stories that transported audiences far beyond the bounds of Lewis County. Through the 1930s and into the 1940s, the theatre became a cornerstone of downtown life. On weekend evenings, Tower Avenue filled with cars and conversation as moviegoers arrived in steady waves. The theatre's lights reflected off storefront windows, and its presence helped define the rhythm of the street - part commerce, part community, part shared experience. Like many theaters of its era, the Fox would eventually face decline as entertainment habits shifted and downtown patterns changed. For a time, its future was uncertain. But the building endured, and so did its significance. Today, the Fox Theatre stands once again as a gathering place - not just as a restored structure, but as a reminder of the generations who passed beneath its marquee. Its story is not only one of architecture or entertainment, but of a community that has continually found ways to preserve its history while stepping forward into the future.

Landers Building

The Landers Building stands along North Tower Avenue as one of those downtown structures that quietly carries several chapters of Centralia's commercial life within a single façade. Public historic-image records identify it as the Landers Building, also known as the Lindberg Building, at 209 N. Tower Street, and categorize it within the Centralia Downtown Historic District. The same public record set places the building's construction in 1912, which is also supported by the date visible on the building façade in your project photos. When it was built, Centralia was moving from early growth into a more confident period of downtown development. Tower Avenue was no longer simply a road through town; it was becoming the city's commercial spine. Brick buildings, formal storefronts, and upper-story business or lodging spaces signaled a community investing in permanence. The Landers Building belonged to that moment. It was designed for activity at street level and usefulness above, the kind of mixed commercial building that helped downtown function from morning errands to evening foot traffic. One of the building's most important historic tenants was F.W. Woolworth, whose presence tied the Landers Building to the rise of national five-and-dime retail in small American downtowns. Newspaper archive snippets for The Chronicle identify Woolworth's as occupying the ground level during the early 20th century, though published references differ on the exact span of operation. One article snippet states the ground floor was Woolworth's beginning in 1913, while another references the Woolworth store operating from 1912 to 1953. Even with that discrepancy, Woolworth's role is historically significant: it made the building part of a broader retail culture where residents could find household goods, notions, gifts, and everyday necessities under one roof. Over time, the Landers Building continued to adapt. Its storefront changed hands, its upper floors shifted in purpose, and its façade experienced the layers of alteration common to downtown buildings that never stopped being useful. In the early 2000s, owners Dan and Sue Horwath purchased and invested in the building, with The Chronicle describing renovation work at 209 N. Tower Ave. and later noting that the building received a Pride of Centralia Award following improvements. Modern image records also document the building as home to Up the Creek Antiques, placing it firmly within Centralia's later identity as a destination for antiques, collectibles, and heritage-based downtown shopping. Today, the Landers Building remains a strong example of continuity through reuse. Its story is not defined by a single tenant, but by the way it has repeatedly served the needs of downtown Centralia: first as part of a growing commercial district, then as a national retail storefront, later as an antique destination, and now as a preserved piece of the city's historic streetscape. The building's endurance reflects the larger story of Tower Avenue itself - built for commerce, reshaped by changing times, and still holding the memory of the people who passed through its doors.

Olympic Club

In 1908, the Olympic Club opened its doors along Tower Avenue, welcoming a steady stream of workers, travelers, and locals drawn to Centralia's growing industries. The rhythm of the town was tied to the movement of railcars and timber, and places like this offered a pause between long days and longer journeys. Inside, the atmosphere was direct and unadorned-built for conversation, familiarity, and the steady exchange of news from across the region. Men gathered at the bar, their voices blending with the sounds of the room, while others lingered at tables, passing time in a place that felt both temporary and essential. It was here that stories were shared, deals were made, and the pulse of the town could be felt most clearly. In 1913, the Olympic Club changed. The interior was transformed with decorative detail that gave the space a new identity - less utilitarian, more permanent. This shift reflected a broader change in Centralia itself, as the city moved from a place of transit to one of establishment. As the decades passed, the building expanded to include lodging and additional services, adapting to the needs of a growing and more settled community. Though the details evolved, its purpose remained consistent. Today, the Olympic Club continues to welcome visitors much as it did over a century ago - a space shaped not only by its architecture, but by the countless lives that have passed through it.

Howell Hotel

Built in 1910, the Howell Hotel rose along North Tower Avenue at a time when Centralia was becoming a busier, more permanent city. The railroad brought travelers, timber and trade brought workers, and downtown buildings began to fill with the kinds of services that made a growing town function day after day. At street level, Moore Bros. Café welcomed customers into the building's public life, while upstairs, the Howell Hotel offered rooms under the proprietorship of Marion Howell. The arrangement reflected the rhythm of early downtown Centralia: food, lodging, commerce, and conversation all stacked within the same building. Over the decades, the Howell Hotel adapted as the city around it changed. Its storefronts became home to a wide variety of businesses, each leaving a different trace on the building's identity. Harriet Goff's Lingerie Shop brought a more refined retail era to the space, followed by businesses such as Bartels Men's Wear, Brister's Stationary, Central Office Products, the Wheel Café, Calico Goose, Simply Collectibles, and eventually The Shady Lady Boutique. In this way, the building became a kind of downtown scrapbook, preserving the memory of shifting tastes, changing economies, and the everyday habits of generations of Centralia residents.

One of its most striking interior features is the grand curved staircase, installed around 1955 during Harriet Goff's occupancy. Owner-provided history attributes the staircase design to noted Seattle architect Paul Hayden Kirk, a major figure in Pacific Northwest modern architecture. Kirk's career was rooted in the Puget Sound region, and he became known for work that reflected regional materials, climate, and design sensibilities; the Pacific Coast Architecture Database identifies him as a Seattle architect active in the mid-20th century and a Fellow of the AIA. The building also carries a more complicated chapter of local history. In the upstairs rooms, The Shady Lady Bordello Museum interprets Centralia's former red-light district and the women whose labor formed part of the town's hidden economy. Public visitor listings place the museum above The Shady Lady boutique at 216 N. Tower, and Discover Lewis County describes it as a museum devoted to Centralia's lively past and former red-light district.

Since 2012, Holly Ryan has owned the building and continued its long tradition of reinvention. Today, the Howell Hotel is home not only to The Shady Lady and its museum, but also to Grist Urban Stone Mill & Grainery, bringing flour milling and local grain culture into one of downtown's most layered historic spaces. More than a century after its opening, the Howell Hotel still does what it has always done: gathers people, holds stories, and adapts with Centralia while keeping the past close at hand.

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