Page 1 of 6 
 
Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Olive Lempi Paavola Armstrong 
June 5, 1986 
Cassette 4, Side 2 
 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:01 
But I didn't like the way he did-- get us into that-- us in that war. I think that's one thing that after 
a while that killed him off, too. It was too much for him, responsibility. No, I have nothing 
against really any of them. Because, like I say, if you don't like this one, you vote next time and 
you get another one.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:24 
Have you always been active in voting? Do you always make sure that you go cast your vote? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:28 
Oh, yeah. Oh, I vote, sure, for what it's worth. It's all you can do. But I never took part in any-- 
[inaudible]. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:36 
The caucuses or [?democratic?] party organizations or anything like that?  
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:42 
So what kind of changes have you seen here in Seattle, just in the years that you've lived here? I 
know on several occasions you said, "Well, this building used to be here, but it's not here 
anymore, and this building has changed." Can you think of anything offhand that just pops into 
your memory about some of the major changes that have gone on in Seattle? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  01:12 
Well, even downtown, the Bon and Frederick's, they were down on 2nd Avenue, way, way 
down. And, of course, Fraser's is no longer there. The building was there. But all the buildings 
that are north, say, Pine Street, there was building on Pike and some on Pine, but not-- mostly 
they were apartment houses and just small businesses. They built the Aurora Bridge while I was 
living in Seattle, and...  
 
Linda G. Greiner  02:04 
Bet that made it handy that-- if you were living-- weren't you living in Queen Anne? Were you 
living in Queen Anne at the time they built that, or...? 
 
Page 2 of 6 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  02:10 
No, we were living in West Seattle, and... 
 
Linda G. Greiner  02:15 
How did you get back and forth to West Seattle? Did they have a bridge? Like they-- oh, did they 
have the bridge?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  02:21 
Oh, they had bridges. They had that overhead bridge that I told you about [inaudible] of the-- 
 
Linda G. Greiner  02:27 
Oh, the one that [crosstalk]--  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  02:28 
--overhead across Spokane Street. [Inaudible] went to Alki and Fauntleroy and where we lived, it 
turned left and went up 1st Avenue South to Highland Park and then on to White Center, Des 
Moines, and out that way. And that's all changed. Oh, at the end of our street, on 9th Avenue was 
trees, and now it's all built up. [Inaudible] there. Anyway, it's all built up everywhere, same way 
with the North End. But I really didn't get up here that much. Fremont was here, and it was-- at 
that time, it was a nice place. It still is nice., but I mean, it kind of went downhill for a while, but 
they had nice shops there, stores, and jewelry stores. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:33 
What about the Pike Place Market?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:36 
It was just like it is--  
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:37 
It hasn't really changed at all?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:39 
Well, it's enlarged, and now they got those windows, you know, so that they're not practically 
sitting in the street, and-- but the main part of that is just like it was, all of the fish market, the 
meat markets, and all that first [?run?]. It's just exactly the same as it was. They've just added 
those concessions in the back. Of course, now they have high rises down there, too, just a little 
bit past there. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:09 
What about the waterfront down there? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:10 
Well, it used to be ships all over, boats, you know, and-- in the docks. Now they've moved all 
them out, put all those concession things in there. It's taken over the docks. Canadian [?run?] is 
still there and ferries are still there, but it's so built up down there. It's really nice. What really 
makes it look bad is that that overpass thing that goes down over the waterfront. They hollered 
Page 3 of 6 
 
about that when they put it in. They said, "It's a no-no, it won't look good." But there was nothing 
down on the waterfront, [inaudible] just the ships. Nobody thought about that, that-- what it 
could be. They had not been to San Francisco, apparently. You don't see how-- what they did 
with the waterfront there. And they went right ahead and built that thing through the city. Of 
course, it helps the traffic. It doesn't have to go through the town. And of course, Pioneer Square, 
all that has changed. The way they've done it now, I think it's a wonderful thing, you know, 
cleaned up those old buildings and there's all that stuff right down there. I think that's real nice. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  05:28 
Yeah, that is nice. Real [inaudible]. What about the-- were you here for the World's Fair, when 
they built the Space Needle? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  05:36 
Oh, yeah. Yeah, we went to that.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  05:39 
Did you watch the Space Needle?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  05:42 
Oh, yeah. They-- we lived in West Seattle, then, and-- when that was going on, and we used to 
drive into town just to watch them work on it. They sluiced away that hill and condemned the 
houses that were there. And there was hou-- the land was hills and vales, you know, [inaudible], 
and some of those hills where the Washington Hotel was, way, way up high, and they sluiced all 
that down. They flattened the whole thing. They had sluices that went down like trams clear 
down to the waterfront, and they filled in down there. Because all that-- all those hills are down 
in the water. They build up the waterfront. We used to come down and just watch them, those 
little cars coming down with all the dirt. And then they'd dump it in the ocean there. And then 
they started a few years later, well, then they started the World's Fair there. What was it? What 
year was that? 
 
Linda G. Greiner  06:52 
1962? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  06:52 
'62. It was many years later, but it was flattened out. There was a few hills there, yes, but people 
didn't want to release their land. I know there are some houses just sitting up there on top of 
nothing, you know, just a chunk of land, stick it right up there. They was not going to to concede 
to having their place, you know, torn down. But eventually they all came down. There were 
schools and everything that were there that had to be demolished, and it's nothing like it used to 
be. Especially like Queen Anne Hill. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  07:34 
You had a couple of houses [inaudible]. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  07:37 
Page 4 of 6 
 
Yeah, one right on top. And that's what-- when I was in California, I'd always said, "If I ever get 
back to Seattle, I want a house on Queen Anne Hill." That's exactly what I did when I came up 
here and looked around, I insisted to my husband [?sell?], you know, that I wanted to live up 
there, and we did. But it sort of didn't work out.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  07:59 
Yeah, it's not like it worked out real well [laughs].  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  08:02 
No, it didn't. Well... Husband didn't like it, you know, he didn't [inaudible] [?somebody would 
want it?] and he wanted to move on right away. Then we worked on-- the kids and I worked on 
the house. That first house we bought, it didn't need anything [inaudible]. It didn't really need 
anything, but of course, I had to go change the painting and [inaudible] and things like that. 
That's the house that I was climbing on that ladder, you know, doing the stairwell painting. And I 
papered the dining room twice, papered my bedroom. The rest of it didn't need it. I had a 
beautiful bathroom, was all blue tile, and a shower room and everything. There wasn't really any 
way that you could change that house, you know? You-- we always liked to change everything. 
But the next house, after we took our boat trip, and we had our furniture here in storage -- we had 
sold that house and lived on the boat for a while, under-- floored under the University Bridge -- 
and I wanted another house while I still had kids around. I wanted a home for them to come to. 
And Marie had gotten married and Robert had finished college and got married, so all I had was 
Roy, and he turned right around and joined the Navy, couldn't keep him, [inaudible] do it, and he 
did. So-- and then Steve took off, and then I was left alone in that house. But we had, we had a 
lot of fun fixing that house. My daughter was only-- we-- it had dark woodwork, so naturally, we 
changed it all to off-whites. And that dining room that plate rail around. Oh, I loved that. You 
have those cute little dividers that-- with a post, you know? Really old fashioned. And bay 
windows and a hallway with a staircase. I got shipped-- ship type paper for the section in the 
hallway, and then also behind the fireplace in the living room. The fireplace was in the corner, 
and then the area [inaudible] I used the same ship paper. And in the dining area, up above the 
plate rail, we found some wallpaper with little bitty yellow roses that was so cute. In the 
breakfast room, in the kitchen -- we had painted the kitchen yellow. And then the breakfast 
room, we found some paper that I had blocks of fruit, kind of off centered differentfruits. I don't 
remember if it had vegetables or not. We'd have fun, my daughter and I, we'd go down to the 
wallpaper place and bring samples home -- they used to give you samples, you know, big sheet -- 
and we'd bring them home and pin them up where we wanted to paper, and then we'd live with it 
for a day or two. It was either a yes or no, and mostly it was a no. And then when we came back 
with the right one we'd ordered, and that's what we used, and it was just charming. The linoleum 
in the kitchen was-- we didn't feel like we'd get new linoleum, so-- it was red, and I hate red. So 
we did a technique that we picked up somewhere that you take a sponge and you dab it into 
green paint, a subdued green paint, and then you dab it into... Was it black? Well, two colors, 
anyway. And you can just keep dabbing it, mixing up the two colors, and you-- first we painted it 
off something color, then we dabbled it that way. And it made a very attractive linoleum. And 
then the green that was in it, the counters were -- had a lot of counter space -- and I painted that 
that off-green color. Real pretty green. And went over [inaudible] [?thing?]. And then it had a lot 
of little windows, and I made [inaudible] ruffle curtains for those with tie backs. And it was-- 
kitchen was [inaudible]. It really was-- and that's a fun part of fixing up the house, is you could 
Page 5 of 6 
 
do something with it. And then painting all the bedrooms that were dark paint, painted them all 
white, off-white. And the boys painted the outside of the house, so we were busy in that house.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  08:58 
[Inaudible.]  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  10:11 
[Inaudible.] 
 
Linda G. Greiner  11:34 
[Inaudible] house and fixed it up and-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  13:02 
Really? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  13:03 
That's when Steve took off, and I had started my business there. I had put the bond and I started 
my business there, and I couldn't just take off and go. So he left, and I was left in the house by 
myself.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  13:22 
How was it running business of your own? What-- did--? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  13:26 
It was-- it keeps you tied down forever, because you end up working at night. Sometimes it'd be 
three o'clock in the work morning and I'd be working down in the basement and-- to get out in 
order, because the decorators -- I worked for decorators mostly -- and when they wanted a job 
they wanted it right now. And so you render stress and strain at all times. It's really hard to run 
your own business, a small business, whereas if you work somewhere else, you have an eight 
hour day, you get there, and then you come home. The time is your own. You're doing business 
in your own home, you never really are free. You always have that on your mind, that, "Well, 
maybe I should go down there and work some more." Which is [inaudible] [?you do?]. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  13:27 
Could you make money at it?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  14:16 
I made a living. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  14:20 
Good living, or just...? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  14:20 
Made a living and kept the roof over your head, and that's all. And then here it was a different 
thing, because this place was so doggone cheap that I didn't have the overhead here. And then 
when Steve came back, well then that was-- he went-- he was where he worked here, on the job, 
Page 6 of 6 
 
and then later on, and then I put money in the house, and put a new roof on [inaudible]. And then 
when he retired completely with them, he picked up jobs and did-- worked in the basement along 
with me and my draperies. So we shared the same cutting table. A big basement down there. It's 
all open and there is a skylight. A lot of windows around. We had good lighting-- we had all new 
lighting in there.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  15:22 
Can think of anything else that is important to you about your life? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  15:36 
I'm glad that all the children are married and they're happy, and they're all very happy with their 
children. They all like children. They're very good to their children, and they're educating them. 
And there's no problems with any of that way. So that's good to leave behind you, that they all 
live well. And I have no future plans, I'm just lucky that I got a roof over my head and places 
paid for, and I don't really have any worries. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  16:15 
[Inaudible.] 
 