Olympic Club Saloon

The Olympic Club Saloon has occupied its place on North Tower Avenue since 1908, and few buildings in downtown Centralia carry such a vivid sense of the city's early personality. It stood in the center of a downtown shaped by railroads, timber, mining, transient workers, and a steady appetite for gathering places. In the early 20th century, Tower Avenue was lined with saloons, pool halls, hotels, restaurants, and businesses that served the workers and travelers moving through Centralia's busy commercial district.

The club's early story is tied to fire, rebuilding, and reinvention. After a 1908 fire damaged the 100 block of North Tower, the building was rebuilt and reshaped into the form that would help define the Olympic Club for generations. The saloon became associated with Jack Sciutto, a Canadian hotelman remembered for appreciating fine details and beautiful surroundings. By 1913, the interior had been refurbished in the style that still gives the Olympic Club much of its character.

That 1913 transformation mattered. Dark wood, beveled and leaded glass, patterned tile, brass hardware, Art Nouveau detailing, Tiffany-style lighting, mahogany paneling, and a richly detailed backbar gave the saloon an identity far beyond simple utility. It was part workingman's refuge, part card room, part restaurant, part public stage. Loggers, miners, railroad workers, travelers, businessmen, and regulars gathered there to exchange news, look for work, play cards, share drinks, and pass time between long days.

The Olympic Club also survived the difficult shifts that changed downtown life: Prohibition, economic downturns, changing entertainment habits, and the decline of the old saloon culture. Its endurance helped preserve not only the building, but the feeling of an earlier Centralia.

Today, the Olympic Club remains a living historic space rather than a preserved shell. People still gather beneath its lights, surrounded by wood, glass, tile, and stories. More than a century after its opening, the building continues to do what it has always done: welcome people in, hold their conversations, and give downtown Centralia a place where the past still feels close enough to touch.