Did you know Olympia has a bomb shelter? With a billion state records?

Yesterday, I visited state archivist Jerry Handfield at the State Archives. The building, across the street from Olympia’s capitol campus, holds about a billion records — including the state Constitution, official maps, governors’ proclamations, permit applications and more.

Here’s one box of records I found:

The archives building also happens to double as a bomb shelter. Handfield said the office was built in the early 60s, when Americans were building personal bomb shelters in their homes. The state decided it, too, needed a shelter. So they measured the blast radius for bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then put the archives building in what they deemed a safe spot based on those measurements, Handfield said. You’ll find signs like these throughout the building:

And here’s another photo of Handfield showing off some bomb shelter supplies:

But mostly, it houses records. Millions and millions of records. Here’s Handfield with some of those records in the back:

He said their “biggest customers” are lawyers. When they — or any member of the public — stop in to look at records, they lock their bags up and sit upstairs while a staff member retrieves the records, which are organized chronologically and by agency.

If you want to see the bomb shelter and storage area, you’ll have to sign up for a tour in October. Handfield said they’ll be doing small-group tours for archives month.

Want to know more? Find out all the info here.

Tags: state archives