New park in downtown Olympia will have a café, festival street and space to heal
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- City launches Rebecca Howard Park plan with café, stage and festival street.
- Project splits into three phases with estimated costs totaling $5.5–6.5M.
- Council renamed three sites after local leaders; one is a new park, armory repurposed.
The City of Olympia has plans to develop Rebecca Howard Park from a small patch of greenery downtown with a few fruit trees, to a place for gathering and celebrating the city’s Black history and culture — with a new café, a stage and street festival space.
According to previous reporting from The Olympian, the 0.34-acre park is at 911 Adams St. SE. The parcel was purchased by the city in 2018 for $315,000, and the city’s plan has been to create a place for peace and healing around race and equity.
The park was named after Rebecca Howard, an accomplished Black woman in early Olympia history, in 2022. The name was suggested by Shawna Hawk, a resident and founder of the Women of Color in Leadership Movement and director of Media Island International, whose business is across the street from the park.
The Community Livability & Public Safety Committee discussed the park development plan Jan. 28. According to meeting information, the city hired a design consultant, who met with local Black community members and hired two as Cultural Design Advocates to help plan community events. They then hosted five community events in 2025 to get feedback on the park’s design and features. The plan is available on the city’s Engage Olympia website.
The plan states that the project “centers Black healing by creating a welcoming, intergenerational space that brings life, beauty and connection to downtown Olympia.”
Among the amenities would be a circular open lawn for large gatherings and everyday park enjoyment, and a porch and stage for outdoor events and seating for a new café on the property. The café would also serve as a community hub for indoor events and gatherings.
Next to the large lawn is a smaller circular gathering space for smaller group meetings, according to the plan. New gardens would be planted on the west side of the park and would be accessible via a winding path. To the north, Ninth Avenue would become a festival street that could be closed off for special events. And that would connect to an outdoor reading nook next to the Olympia Timberland Library.
“Together, these elements make the space open, inclusive, and rooted in Black community, honoring the past while creating a vibrant place for healing, gathering, and envisioning the future,” the plan states.
The park may include different types of art including sculptures and tile work, and the garden space could include a water feature. The plan states that “a water feature would enrich the garden’s healing properties by offering a space for contemplation and connection to ancestors.”
The plan states that the process of turning Ninth Avenue into a festival street would mean narrowing the street and raising its level to match the sidewalks.
“When closed to traffic, the festival street offers space for food trucks, vendors, and community gathering,” according to the plan. “When open to traffic, the narrowed street, new planting beds and trees, and seating areas near the library make 9th Ave a more enjoyable place to walk and linger.”
Parks Planner Sarah Giannobile told The Olympian that the remodel would happen in three phases, starting with the building, then the park, then the festival street. She provided a budget range for each phase and said they’re escalated out to January 2027, and the number depends on “whether the funding allows extras in the design such as solar, rain catchment, etc.”
For the building phase, the range is $2,437,000 to $2,622,800. For the park features, the range is $1,822,500 to $2,438,200. For the festival street, the range is $1,275,400 to $1,466,700.
Giannobile included estimates for annual Operations & Maintenance fees for the building and park. Altogether, that estimated cost is $92,500 to $106,400.
She said it’s difficult to say when construction will occur for the first phase of the project. She said after the plan is approved by the City Council, staff will be moving forward with a funding plan and grant applications. She said they know construction won’t start within the next couple years.
Three parks get new names
In other park news, the Olympia City Council unanimously approved the renaming of three park facilities at its Jan. 27 meeting. Parks Director Laura Keehan said the locations are the Olympia Armory, Yelm Highway Community Park, and Kaiser Woods Park. All three are being renamed after former local leaders.
Keehan said the proposed name for the Olympia Armory is the Daley Arts Center. The armory is a 43,000 square-foot space that’s currently closed for construction to become a community arts hub and home for eight nonprofit organizations.
Keehan said Daley served as a city council member and then mayor from 1986 to 1987. She said he was key in assembling the city’s first Arts Commission.
“He was a strong advocate for an art center overall, which is very fitting for him to be named after this,” she said. “And he was an advocate for downtown and Percival Landing, among many other things.”
Yelm Highway Community Park will be named Jolene Unsoeld Community Park. The park will be the city’s first since the 1980s and construction is set to start this spring. It will feature a full-size soccer field, 13 pickleball courts, a soccer mini pitch, a playground, basketball courts, a dog park and a satellite park maintenance facility.
Keehan said Unsoeld served two terms in the Washington State Legislature before running for Congress in 1988. She represented Washington’s third district and was only the third woman to represent the state in Congress.
Keehan said Unsoeld successfully lobbied for a bill in the Washington State Legislature to create the Public Disclosure Act.
Lastly, Kaiser Woods Park will be renamed to Marj Yung Park. Keehan said Yung was a Thurston County commissioner in the 1970s who helped establish the 911 central dispatch system and “advocated for comprehensive planning and zoning in the county.”
“She was a member of the League of Women Voters, helped establish Burfoot Park, and she wrote and illustrated a booklet on the plants of Ken Lake, which is very near to the location of Kaiser Woods Park,” Keehan said.
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