In 1937, two German immigrants became business partners when they purchased Tobin Sheet Metal, a 500-square-foot shop located on State Street in downtown Olympia. William Schmidtke and Helmut Klein opened Capital Sheet Metal, where they created products such as metal and copper roofs and gutters. They even made the hand-formed original copper leaves for the Tivoli fountain replica on the Capitol campus. When they eventually started providing custom ductwork, the company became a full-fledged heating and air conditioning contractor. The company grew over the next three decades, moving around town to accommodate more and more customers. In the late 1950s, they moved from their original location to the west side. They incorporated the company in 1963 and became an authorized General Electric dealer. (When GE sold this division to the Trane Company in 1980, Capital remained a dealer. We still sell Trane products today!).