File:Eden Musée,1st Ave at the foot of Cherry St, Seattle, Aug 9, 1904 (CURTIS 2075 cropped).jpeg

English:

627 First Avenue as the "Eden Musée" in 1904. Also variously known as the Silver Building/Hotel, Aronson Building, Totem Loans or Totem Pole Loans building. Bbuilt immediately after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, by the Gordon Hardware Company, as a near replica of their 3-story Italianate building that previously stood on the site, but with 2 additional floors. After Gordon Hardware's closure, the building's upper floors were occupied by the Stewart & Holmes Drug Co. with the ground floor later housing drug stores into the 1930s. The current facade is the remnant of an awkward remodeling in the 1910s that saw most of the building's original ornamentation erased. It was reduced to its current height after the 1949 earthquake.
Signs here say:

• "Meet me on the Str. Yosemite any afternoon at 2^pm or any evening at 8^pm and enjoy the (illegible) of Puget Sound daily excursions (illegible). Dancing and music free. Pier 6 · Foot of University St. Watch for particulars in daily papers."
• "Eden Musée | [illegible] doors throw in July | Using Olympic Wood Fiber Plaster".

The short-lived museum at this location included, according to early Musée ads "The Passion Play, Historical War Museum, the Double Man, the Bearded Woman, the Educated Horse, the Fire Eater, the Hindoo Magician, the Chamber of Horrors, the Japanese Battle, Famous Wax Works, the best vaudeville bill in the city" (The Seattle Times, December 21, 1907). It also later included a display of babies in incubators.