A HOUSE FROM THE EARLY 20th CENTURY

A delightful two-and-a-half story home located near the lower Tumwater Falls dates from the optimistic age at the turn of the 20 th 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 Naumann, a brewmaster from

Hamburg, Germany who worked across the river at the Olympia Brewing Company. It was built by a local firm, the Olympia Manufacturing and Building Company, which was located on West Bay drive. The Company built several Olympia homes which cost about $1,800 to $2,000. At the same time the brewery was also building a fine new six-story brewhouse—a landmark structure of red brick and sandstone that opened the following year.

The Naumann family’s house was considered quite modern for its day. It boasted such novel conveniences as hot and cold running water, steam 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.

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, across the little footbridge that spanned the Lower Falls, 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.

WASHINGTON GOES DRY

Yielding to strong public sentiment, the State of Washington banned the sale of all alcoholic beverages in 1914—six years before the same policy was adopted nationwide. Prohibition was a terrible blow to the local brewing company. It switched to bottling water and fruit juice in place of beer, then finally shut down entirely in 1921. Perhaps coincidentally, that was the same year the Rohrbeck family sold their house near the brewery and moved to Olympia.

When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Tumwater was ready. Within weeks the Olympia Brewing Company broke ground on a new facility just upstream from the old one. Construction workers found rooms to rent in the graceful old home originally owned by brewmaster William Naumann.

RESTORING A PIECE OF HISTORY

In 1974 the house was purchased by the City of Tumwater with the aim of restoring its dignity and using it as a museum. Over the years 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.

The house has been developed into the Henderson House Museum.

Listed on the Tumwater Register of Historic Places and the National Register as part of the Tumwater Historic District.

City of Tumwater Historical Information