The Bigelow House, also known as the Bigelow House Museum, is a historic house museum located at 918 Glass Avenue Northeast in the

Bigelow Neighborhood Bigelow Neighborhood, also called the Bigelow Historic District, is a historic district located on the eastside of Olympia, Washington. It is located along Olympia Avenue, between East Bay Drive and Tullis Street. About The neighborhood is named a ...

of Olympia, Washington. Built by Daniel Bigelow in the 1850s, the house was designed in the Carpenter Gothic style. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

History

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

graduate Daniel Bigelow arrived in

Olympia The name Olympia may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games * ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...

in 1851 after crossing the Oregon Trail. He took up a

Donation Land Claim The Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, sometimes known as the Donation Land Act, was a statute enacted by the United States Congress in late 1850, intended to promote homestead settlements in the Oregon Territory. It followed the Distribution-Preem ...

just east of the new town and built a two-room cabin near an

artesian spring An artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer containing groundwater under positive pressure. An artesian aquifer has trapped water, surrounded by layers of impermeable rock or clay, which apply positive pressure to the water contained within th ...

overlooking Budd Inlet in South Puget Sound. In 1854 Bigelow married Ann Elizabeth White, one of the first school teachers in the territory. They built the present house by 1860 where they raised eight children. The Bigelows were active in many political causes including temperance, women's suffrage and

public education State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in pa ...

. Over the years many historical figures visited the Bigelows including Snoqualmie headman Patkanim, Suffragette Susan B. Anthony and George Pickett when he was stationed in the territory prior to the American Civil War. The Bigelows were also a host family for some of the Mercer Girls when they arrived in 1866. The Bigelows lived in the house until their deaths; Daniel in 1905 and Ann Elizabeth in 1926. The house remained in the Bigelow family until 1994 when owners Daniel S Bigelow (grandson of Daniel and Ann Elizabeth) and Mary Ann Campbell Bigelow helped form the non-profit Bigelow House Preservation Association (BHPA) to save the house from developers. BHPA restored the house to its territorial era appearance, naming it the Bigelow House Museum in 1995. The Bigelow family also retained a life-estate agreement that allowed them to remain in the house for the rest of their lives. Since 2005 the Bigelow House Museum is fully open as a public museum, displaying original territorial era furnishings, photos, and documents. It is one of the oldest and most intact pioneer-era homes in Washington. The home is also the centerpiece of the

, which includes many homes built by the Bigelow and White families.Washington State Museums
. Sherman County Historical Museum. Retrieved 6/21/07. In 2013 BHPA merged with the Olympia Historical Society becoming the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum.

References

External links

Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum
(official website)
HABS Data @Library of Congress American MemoryBigelow Springs Park
{{National Register of Historic Places in Washington National Register of Historic Places in Olympia, Washington Houses in Thurston County, Washington Historic house museums in Washington (state) Museums in Thurston County, Washington Carpenter Gothic architecture in Washington (state) Carpenter Gothic houses in the United States Bigelow Tourist attractions in Olympia, Washington

History

See also

References

External links