In the background of that photo, along the horizon line, the tallest building is the Hotel Governor, now long gone. They had a barber shop at street level where my brother and I visited every two weeks to have our heads shaved. There was a lobby thick with cigar smoke, where old guys with fedoras were sunk into big chairs and portraits of Washington governors lined the walls. A restaurant with a Polynesian motif and dim lighting occupied the SE corner. I watched the 1965 Lakefair parade from across the street, and when a very young Dan Evans rode by as a guest of honor, several teenage girls hung out the windows of the Hotel and screamed as if they were seeing a rock star.

The tall building on the right of the photo was the Olympia Post Office when I was a kid. Today it still stands as a government building.