Centennial Station

The Union Pacific Railroad opened its East Olympia depot (originally named Chambers Prairie) on January 16, 1916, as part of a new Tacoma–Portland main line that was shared with the Northern Pacific and Great Northern.^[7] Northern Pacific also had a station at Kyro, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) northeast of the current station.^{[citation needed]} Olympia had been bypassed by earlier railroads in favor of a more direct route between Tacoma and Portland, as well as property deed issues after the death of a local agent for a major landowner. A branch line from Tenino was instead constructed by local residents in to serve the city until a new Northern Pacific line opened in 1891.^[8] The Chambers Prairie depot was renamed to East Olympia station on July 1, 1933, and plans to launch a bus between the depot and downtown Olympia were announced.^[9]

The depot deteriorated over the next decade and, by 1944, had its windows boarded up and lacked a station agent.^[7] The last bus shuttle to downtown Olympia ceased operations on February 1, 1968, after Union Pacific canceled its contract with a local operator.^[10][11] A public payphone was installed in the waiting room shortly after the bus shuttle's discontinuation; the station's waiting room remained without reliable heat and a restroom, instead using an outhouse.^[11] Amtrak trains during the 1970s and 1980s used a wooden shelter as East Olympia's passenger train station instead of the depot. However, the station site was remote and had no public transport, no lighting and a pot-holed gravel parking lot with a public telephone that rarely worked.^[12][13]

A new Amtrak station to replace East Olympia was proposed in the late 1980s, to be located on county-owned land facing the Yelm Highway.^[13] Centennial Station opened on October 28, 1990, with temporary lighting for the 800-foot-long (240 m) platform and portable toilets, as well as a 36-space parking lot.^[14] The first phase of the project—installing permanent lighting and landscaping—was completed in December at a cost of $385,000.^[15] A 60 percent increase in ridership was reported for that month, with over 2,000 passengers using Centennial Station compared to 1,302 in December 1989 at the former East Olympia stop.^[16]

The station's depot was built by the non-profit Amtrak Depot Committee, which began raising funds in 1987 and aimed to open a permanent station in time for the state centennial in 1989.^[12] The committee raised $500,000 through government grants, business contributions, individual donations, and the sale of engraved bricks that were later laid in the station plaza.^[17] Centennial Station's depot and waiting area opened to the public on May 1, 1993, following the delayed installation of a sewer system.^[12][18]

It is believed to be the only Amtrak station in the nation both built^{[citation needed]} and operated entirely by volunteers.^[19] The train station was sold to Intercity Transit for $1 in September 1993, while the Amtrak Depot Committee remained the main operators of the facility.^[20] The committee also raised $10,000 to install a 10-foot-tall (3.0 m) clocktower in the courtyard, which was dedicated on November 14, 1994, as part of a ceremony for the Talgo trainsets entering service on the Seattle–Portland corridor.^[21] Despite early proposals to bypass the Olympia area in favor of a shorter route via Roy,^[22] Amtrak's rebranded Cascades service with Talgo trainsets debuted at the station in 1999.^[23] The station's parking lot was expanded to 133 stalls as part of an improvement project that was completed in 2001.^[24] A second improvement project, completed in 2003, included a rebuilt train platform for accessibility and the installation of an electronic information kiosk.^[19][25]

  Media related to Centennial Station at Wikimedia Commons

• Olympia, WA – Amtrak
• Olympia, WA – Station history at Great American Stations (Amtrak)