A House From The Early 20th Century
This delightful two-and-a-half story home dates from the optimistic age at the turn of the 20th century. By then Tumwater had blossomed from a tiny pioneer village into a very promising town with electric streetcars, a railroad spur and a highly successful brewery at the foot of Tumwater Falls
The house was built in 1905 for William and Louise Naumann at a cost of $1,500, Naumann, a native of Germany, worked as a brewmaster across the river at the Olympia Brewing Company. At the same time his house was under construction, the brewery was also building a fine new six-story brewhouse—a landmark of red brick and sandstone that was completed the following year.
The Naumann house was considered quite modern for its day. It boasted such novel conveniences as hot and cold running water, heat from a coal-fired boiler and electric lights in each room. Electricity was provided by the Olympia Power and Light Company, which had just erected a new powerhouse on the river below the Naumann home, down at the Lower Falls.
Growing Up With The Brewery
In 1909 the house was purchased by John and Catherine Rohrbeck, who stayed for more than a decade and raised three children here. John Rohrbeck worked for the brewery all his professional life, beginning as an accountant and ending 40 years later as an officer of the firm.
Like most of the neighbors around them, the Rohrbecks grew kitchen vegetables and a modest assortment of fruit trees on their large city lot. They also kept plenty of chickens and a dairy cow for milk. Later their daughter remembered carrying milk to the brewery as a treat for the brewhouse cats. One of her brothers treasured an even sweeter memory: running down to the brewery for the ice the family needed to make “the best ice cream I have ever eaten (lots of fresh eggs and cream).”
A Style That Straddled Two Eras
Though the house was built at the turning of a brand new century, its design was largely inspired by the passing Victorian age. The asymmetrical profile, bay windows, fancy upstairs shingles and romantic corner turret were all familiar features of the Queen Anne style, which had been especially popular in the 1880s and ‘90s. The influence of a new era was beginning to show, however. This house was much less elaborate, with a broader and plainer roofline, than earlier Queen Anne examples. Before long the fashion in homes would turn to simpler, more restrained styles.
A Family Home
After the Rohrbecks moved away in 1921, three more Tumwater families made their home in this house. Edwin Jenkins, a wagon maker, and his wife, Amelia, lived here until 1928 and later returned to the neighborhood, moving into another home on the opposite side of the street. William and Viola Sloan, who owned the house through the hardest years of the great depression, rented rooms to boarders until the bank foreclosed on their mortgage in 1934. Five years later the vacant house was purchased by the James F. and Agnes Henderson family, who stayed for more than three decades. The Henderson children later spoke fondly of growing up here--roller skating on the wood floors, weeding their mother's vegetable garden and swinging out over the slope in back from a rope in a big cedar tree.
Restoring A Piece of History
In 1977 the aging home was bought by the City of Tumwater with the aim of restoring its dignity and using it as a museum. Over the decades some radical changes had been made to the exterior, and careful work was required to bring back all of its lovely details. The interior, by contrast, had been altered hardly at all. Today this historic Tumwater home looks much the same, both inside and out, as it did back in 1905.