EstablishedEst. MDCCCLXX · Olympia, Washington

The Olympian Barbershop — Olympia's Original

Nineteen years before Washington became a state, this shop opened its doors on Washington Street. The chair is still turning.

Choose your chair Since 1870

The Shop

Older than the building it stands in.

In 1870 a barber opened a chair on Washington Street. Washington was still a territory. The Hotel Olympia would not rise around this block for another fifty years, and the dome up the hill had not been drawn yet.

Everything since has happened around it. Governors walked down from the capitol for a trim, which is how the place got its second name. Tommie Nurmi kept the room for twenty-seven years and counted Governor Jay Inslee among his standing appointments. In 2019 the shop was pulled back toward its own photographs — the fixtures, the light, the feel of the room when it was young.

Today Nieko Anderson runs it, and there are two chairs. 156 years in the same trade, on the same street, doing the one thing well.

Since 1870

A century and a half of Tuesdays.

MDCCCLXX

1870

The chair opens.

A barbershop begins on Washington Street, in a town that is the capital of a territory and not yet of a state.

MDCCCLXXXIX

1889

Washington becomes a state.

The shop is already nineteen years old. It has been here longer than the state it sits in.

Circa MCMXX

The hotel

The block builds up around it.

Nearly five decades on, the Hotel Olympia goes up on this block. The barbershop is the older tenant, and stays.

The capitol years

Governors

The Governor's Barbershop.

A short walk from the capitol steps. Governors and legislators keep standing appointments, and the nickname sticks.

Twenty-seven years

Nurmi

Tommie's room.

Tommie Nurmi holds the chair for twenty-seven years and becomes a fixture in this town. Governor Jay Inslee sat in it.

MMXIX

2019

Put back the way it was.

A remodel worked from old photographs, returning the room to the character it carried in its best years.

Now open

Today

Nieko & Pete.

Two chairs, two barbers, one straight razor tradition that has never gone out of this room. Pick a chair.

Booking

Choose your chair.

Two barbers, two chairs. Each keeps his own book and sets his own prices — pick a chair and you’ll see his.

Chair I Nieko Anderson at his chair in the Olympian Barbershop

Nieko Anderson

Barber · First chair

Modern cuts and classic ones both, tight fades, and the straight-razor finish that has been standard in this room since 1870. Nieko keeps the first chair and the keys.

Book with Nieko @olympianbarbershop ↗

Booking link coming soon — call the shop

Chair II Pete at his chair in the Olympian Barbershop

Pete

Barber · Second chair

Traditional cuts, beard shaping, and hot-towel shaves. Pete keeps the second chair, and he is in no hurry to move you out of it.

Book with Pete @repetebarber ↗

Booking link coming soon — call the shop

The Restoration

Put back the way it was.

The 2019 remodel wasn’t a redesign. It was a return. The room was rebuilt toward photographs of its own best years, down to the fixtures and the light — and the tools on the counter never left in the first place.

Two antique barber chairs facing the carved mirror, a barber pole reflected in it
The two chairs
Hand clippers, shears and combs laid out along the wooden counter
The tools, still in use
A straight razor, badger brushes and a shaving mug on the counter
Lather, brush, blade
The Olympian Barbershop storefront on Washington Street, its name painted on the window beneath a hanging BARBER blade sign

Visit

521 Washington
Street SE

Olympia, Washington 98501

Under the awning on Washington Street, beneath the hanging blade sign. The name is painted on the glass.

564·263·0283
Get directions Choose your chair
  • Tuesday – Friday10:00 – 6:00
  • Saturday11:00 – 3:00
  • Sunday & MondayClosed

Walk in if a chair is open. Call ahead if it matters.