In 1854, Daniel Richardson Bigelow and Ann Elizabeth White, both newcomers to Washington Territory, married and began their life together in the a two-room cabin Daniel built on his 640 acre parcel of land just east of Budd Inlet, across from downtown Olympia. Soon afterwards (sources vary on the actual year) they built their neat two-story Carpenter Gothic home where they raised their eight children. The home remained in the family for over 100 years.

The front half was constructed first and sits on a raft of charred cedar logs measuring 16”-18” in diameter.  This was a common practice to preserve the wood from beetles and rot.  The back half was added later (although it is not known how much later) and uses a more contemporary pier and pad construction method.

In 1871 the famous suffragist Susan B. Anthony dined at the Bigelow House while passing through Olympia on one of her lecture tours. A plaque outside the house commemorates the occasion, and family legend identifies one of the armchairs in the parlor as the one upon which Miss Anthony sat.

The Bigelow House Museum (BHM) is significant for being furnished almost entirely with items originally owned by the Bigelow family. Each room tells its own story and represents a different period of the Bigelow family’s three-generation occupancy of the house from the 1860s to the 21st century.