The Fire That Changed the Capitol

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The Fire That Changed the Capitol

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On a Saturday afternoon in 1928, smoke began pouring from the clock tower of Washington’s Old Capitol building in downtown Olympia. Within minutes, flames engulfed one of the state’s most recognizable landmarks — drawing half the town into the streets to watch it burn.In this episode of Into the Archives, we step inside that moment: the fire, the frantic effort to save irreplaceable government records, and the turning point it marked in Washington’s history.It is a story of firefighters racing from Tacoma, volunteers carrying the state’s records out by hand, and how the loss of the eight-sided clock tower reshaped Olympia’s skyline — and its sense of time.Despite the destruction, government never stopped. The fire accelerated a transition already underway — from a cramped downtown seat of power to the modern Capitol campus up the hill.A story about loss, resilience, and the fragile nature of history itself.

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