My buddy Johnny at work talked about this place in passing a couple of times, and I suggested last week that we go to check it out. Founded in 1896, and out of commission for over 100 years, the first building we visit (the original Capitol Brewing Co. building) is simultaneously serene and eerie.
We parked in a lot near Tumwater Falls park and walked for about 15 minutes until we arrived at the decrepit brewery:
Johnny had explored here many times before, so he showed me an old window to jump through to get in, just to the right of what's pictured above. Inside this building, there's really nothing but a good deal of broken glass, wood pieces, and miscellaneous junk. There were a couple of destroyed bathroom stalls, with the pipes for sinks and toilets still intact.
The second floor was just a long, wide warehouse room, adorned with graffiti. One piece reads "It's the Water", the slogan of Olympia Brewing Co. (the name was changed from Capitol Brewing to Olympia Brewing in 1902).
Johnny and I checked out pretty much every nook and cranny of this building on our way to the roof. Not too much to see, just a post-apocalyptic vibe throughout. There was some nice views through the windows, like this one of the nearby river:
The roof was really awesome though.
After hanging out on the roof for awhile, we decided to meander back down and check out another section of the brewing complex. This section closed due to state-wide prohibition in 1916, and a new Olympia Brewing was built just 10 minutes away on foot. These other buildings closed down more recently, in 2003.
We went back to the car to drop some stuff off. Then I followed Johnny down to the railroad tracks and through the tunnel to the other abandoned complex.
This place was a little more difficult to get into. Johnny had said that he heard that this place got bought awhile ago, but he didn't know if that was true or if they were more actively keeping people off of the property. It seems that they were. A couple of the entrances that Johnny led me to were newly locked, and we ended up walking around in this crazy skybridge maze for awhile:
We did finally make it into the building, but we heard some workers in the floors above and got spooked. We hotfooted it out of there real fuckin' quick.
It's a shame that they're working on the property now, I would have really liked to explore further. I might do it anyways - I'm too curious to see what the rest of this place looks like. Maybe the workers wouldn't be there on a Sunday or something. Johnny was saying that there's some office spaces in some other buildings that were left exactly as they were when the place shut down, with papers from the 80's and everything. So stay tuned for a Part 2... :)
Thanks for checking out our little adventure, I hope you found it intriguing!
All pictures are mine, edited with Google Snapseed. Shot on an iPhone 6 and a Nikon D70.
