File:2nd Ave. looking north from Madison St., ca. 1903 - DPLA - 9f8a0b197a7bc64261c55f7378e673fb.jpg

Transcribed from photograph: "Seattle Streets. Second Ave. Ca. 1915. Looking north from Madison. Photo by Webster & Stevens. Frederick & Nelson (left) and American Savings Bank (right) in foreground."

Seattle Public Library dates this as 1915, but that seems unlikely. In the distance, it appears that Second Avenue ascends a steep grade around Pike Street. The street was regraded in roughly 1904 and became nearly an even grade as it continued up to a slight leftward bend two blocks north of there at Stewart Street. Also the Standard Furniture/Broadacres building at the corner of Pine was built 1907 and would presumably be visible there any time after that date. Closer, at Union Street, at any relevant time after 1911 there would be a 6-story southern extension of the Bon Marché. Also: note the complete lack of automobiles. By the mid-teens, there would almost certainly be automobiles as well as streetcars and horse-drawn vehicles. Further (and more clinchingly), in 1906 the American Savings Bank would have moved south across Madison to the new American Savings Bank and Empire Building, and by 1910 that corner building and several others would be replaced by the Leary Building.