About our downtown Olympia location:
The Rockway-Leland Building was constructed in 1941 in a design by Joseph Wohleb. An older building 1927 building just north of the Rockway-Leland building was remodeled on the facade to resemble the new structure. The building is an important contribution to the Art Deco elements of downtown. The firm began in 1928 when O. R. Rockway of Seattle started a business to dispose of the slab wood, hog fuel and other waste wood from area mills. This was the Rockway Mill Wood Company founded in 1928. The market developed rapidly and Rockway decided to expand to include Texas oil products. In 1929 the Olympia Oil and Wood Products Company was formed and the wood yard moved to Port of Olympia. Rockway added coal, diesel, stove oil and heavy burner oils to his products. He served such areas as Fort Lewis, McChord Air Force Base and enlarged his service delivery to Mason, Pierce, King and Lewis Counties. C. H. Leland was manger of offices and secretary-treasurer of the firm for many years. The building was also home to KGY radio whose studios were located on the second floor. One of the oldest radio stations in the United States, it was begun in 1922 by Father Sebastian Ruth of St. Martin’s College before becoming a commercial operation. Specially designed, acoustically perfect studios housed the station with a 150 foot tall tower on the roof of the building. The roof also had an air raid siren which proclaimed the raid on Pearl Harbor to Olympia residents.
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