HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
A 1935 downtown Olympia cafe and bar, now a McMenamins, with bartender lore that fits the chain's well-documented house-ghost tradition.
114 4th Ave E, Olympia, WA 98501
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Open to the public; menu pricing for food and drinks. No cover.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Ground-floor restaurant and bar in downtown Olympia.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1935 · Operating downtown Olympia eatery since 1935 · Acquired and restored by McMenamins, a Pacific Northwest preservation-minded hospitality company · Longtime gathering spot for loggers, dockworkers, students, and state legislators
The Spar Cafe opened on June 28, 1935, billed as one of downtown Olympia's finest eating and recreation parlors. Its early clientele was largely working-class: dockworkers, loggers, and laborers from the nearby port and timber trades. Over the decades it broadened into a general gathering place for students, downtown workers, and state legislators drawn from the nearby Capitol Campus.
The cafe remained family-operated for roughly 60 of its first 70 years, with the McWain family holding it for several decades. In the mid-2000s the Pacific Northwest hospitality company McMenamins purchased the Spar and closed it for a short restoration aimed at returning the interior toward its 1935 appearance, preserving the long mahogany bar, vintage signage, and historic photographs.
McMenamins reopened the Spar as a full restaurant and bar serving its own ales, wines, and spirits alongside diner fare. Period recreation fixtures, including two 22-foot shuffleboard tables and pinball machines, were kept in play. The building sits over an artesian water source, a detail the company has folded into its branding. The Spar continues to operate as an anchor of Olympia's historic downtown core, one of the longest continuously running eating establishments in the city.
Sources
The Spar appears on Olympia spooky-spots roundups and on Pretty Gritty Tours' Olympia history and haunted walking tour, with the recurring claim that a former bartender never left. Accounts describe glasses sliding or moving on their own behind the bar and unexplained noises after hours.
The lore sits inside a larger, well-documented context. McMenamins has built a deliberate ghost-story tradition across its restored hotels and pubs and, as Willamette Week reported in 2025, hosts October ghost tours at its most haunted-reputed bars. That makes the Spar's bartender tale part of a recognizable house-ghost canon the company actively curates rather than a stand-alone, independently investigated case.
No named individual, death record, or primary documentation has surfaced to anchor the bartender story, so it is best understood as community and company folklore tied to a genuinely old building. Visitors come for the 1935 interior and the food first; the resident-bartender legend is an after-hours bonus rather than the draw.
Notable Entities
Stop in for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and take in the restored 1935 interior, vintage photographs, and McMenamins history displays that line the walls. Two shuffleboard tables and pinball machines remain in service.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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