Olympia historic home owners open their doors to guests for holiday tour

The first time she walked through the house at 1910 Water St. SW, Polly Mayberry had the feeling it would soon belong to her and her husband, Mike Mayberry.

“It must have been meant to be,” she said, sitting on the sofa in the living room. “We had looked for 18 months, because we knew we wanted to live in this neighborhood.

“We had been out of town for the weekend, and I asked Mike, ‘Can we do one quick drive through?’ and this house was open. … We bought it that weekend.”

The 1923 Colonial Revival bungalow, bedecked for the season with garlands and lights, is one of seven historic South Capitol homes on the Olympia Historical Society’s Holiday Tour of Historic Homes happening Sunday.

It’s easy to see why the Mayberrys were charmed by the house, which has a welcoming arched entry, a big side porch, an original fireplace in the living room, and a window seat in the dining room.

But what really won Polly Mayberry’s heart was the tiny upstairs powder room, hidden behind an arched door with a frosted glass window. With just enough space for a toilet and a tiny sink with separate faucets for hot and cold running water, the room has an arched window that echoes its door.

“That was one of the reasons we bought this house,” she said. “My brother-in-law is 6-4, and they sleep in the guest room upstairs. He says it’s not every day you can sit on the toilet and brush your teeth at the same time.”

Mayberry, who’s lived in the house for three years, wasn’t the first owner to love it. It was built for Rose Laberee, who lived there with her daughter Gladys Kelly. The family entertained often, placing a piano on the porch to host concerts. Guests would listen on the lawn.

The Mayberrys, who were initially reluctant to open their home for the tour, are excited to be following in its history of hospitality, welcoming as many as a few hundred tour goers.

Each of the homes, all built in the first half of the 20th century, will be staffed by docents who’ll talk about the home’s history and architecture, said Shanna Stevenson of the historical society. The tour also includes admission to the 19th-century Bigelow House, where there’ll be live music, cookies and a quilt show, and the Coach House at the State Capital Museum, which is selling tickets and offering restroom access.

“What we’re really celebrating is the South Capitol neighborhood,” said Martin McCallum, whose Mission Revival cottage is on the tour. He and his wife, Valerie McCallum, and the Mayberrys all view themselves as caretakers for homes that were here before they were born and will pass into other hands in the future.

“We have a heritage here in our capital city, and we want to protect and maintain it,” Martin McCallum said. “We are stewards of our house.”

He felt drawn to his house because its parapets and stucco reminded him of his childhood years in Argentina.

Polly Mayberry is particularly fond of her porch, to which she’s added a piece of her own history.

Though it’s otherwise open to the outside, she’s hung three windows to define the space, creating a cozy feeling that lures her and her husband to sit there even in winter, bundled up and fortified with mugs of coffee.

She sees the windows as another sign that this house was meant to be hers.

“Our daughter gave us those three windows years ago,” she said. “I have carried them with me everywhere. I didn’t realize at the time that this was where they would end up.”

This story was originally published December 1, 2017 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Olympia historic home owners open their doors to guests for holiday tour."