Olympia is getting its first history museum. What will be on display opening weekend?
A downtown storefront that used to house Bittersweet Chocolates until it closed at the end of 2024 will now be home to the city’s first-ever museum dedicated to Olympia’s arts, culture and history.
Former Mayor Cheryl Selby is the incoming president of the Olympia Arts & Heritage Alliance, the nonprofit behind the Olympia AHA Museum at 203 Columbia St. NW. She said they’re still finding chocolate dust in hard-to-reach places, as they just got the keys to the space in May to set up for a June 28 grand opening. However, she said it’s taken eight years of planning and organizing to get to where the museum is today.
There have been talks of locating a history museum at 108 State Avenue just down the street. The former city hall and fire department building is currently being eyed for use by Municipal Court staff, but they may only need the top floor. The new museum’s current location is a sort of test run to gauge the public’s interest in having such an amenity downtown.
The grand opening celebration will take place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 28.
After that, the museum will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. Selby said the AHA group has a one-year lease in the current building, but that could be extended. The museum is free, but donations are encouraged. The nonprofit is also looking for volunteers who want to help with museum functions and events.
Selby gave The Olympian a preview of the museum ahead of its grand opening. Much of the layout remains unchanged from the space’s former use as a chocolate business, but it works for a potentially temporary museum. Selby said they’re treating the space like a boat, where every inch has to have a purpose.
The old service counter at the front of the museum will serve as a downtown Visitor Center, where people can come in for information and wayfinding, brochures and more. The Visitor Center will also carry hats, shirts and tote bags with OlyAHA! branding, and it will sell gear from The Evergreen State College.
The space also serves as a couple of the museum’s galleries. On the wall next to the service counter are button blankets from the Squaxin Island Tribe. There will also be a scale model of a historic tugboat on display. The corner window will feature fabric panel art devoted to forestry that will be visible 24/7 from outside the museum.
The galleries behind the Visitor Center and lobby take you in a loop, through one hallway and into a room, then back to the lobby. The hallway gallery will feature art from seven local artists paired with historic postcards of those places.
Selby said the nonprofit is working hard to bring in different exhibits that relate to the power of place, or the influence the environment has on individuals.
“The theme that we chose was the power of place, because we really feel like that speaks to our community, because we’re so rooted in who Olympia is, and not just the capital, but who we are as a community,” she said. “I get a little irritated sometimes when the news in Seattle talks about, ‘Down in Olympia, you know, they did this,’ and it’s all about the legislature. It’s like, wait a minute, we’re a community too.”
One of the exhibits that speaks to that is “Sylvester’s Window,” a series of eight cityscapes that depict downtown Olympia from south of Sylvester Park throughout the decades.
Another exhibit will focus on the Procession of the Species and what came before the popular downtown event. It may have all started with a festival in 1935 called “Pagan Frolic,” a three-day Greek mythology summer celebration.
Selby said galleries and exhibits will be rotated out every few months. One that’s already on the schedule is an exhibit highlighting the history of the shellfish industry in and around Olympia. She said there will also be speaker events and storytelling installations, and hopefully walking tours of downtown one day as well.
This story was originally published June 22, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
.jpg)