This view of the southeast corner of Second Avenue and Columbia Street in downtown Seattle includes several buildings that remain standing. In the center of the frame The Seattle National Bank Building (now the United Way Building), built in 1921, stands at 720 Second Avenue. Moving south on Second Avenue, the 15-story Dexter Horton building is at 710 Second Avenue, built in 1923 and named it in honor of Dexter Horton (1825-1904), who began the city's first bank in 1870. Further south, the Alaska Building was the first steel-frame skyscraper in Seattle when it was built in 1904 on the corner of Second Avenue and Cherry Street. The Corona Building (formerly Oriental Building or Oriental Block) at 606 Second Avenue is next; built in 1903, it is six stories high with red brick walls and is distinguished by the Sullivanesque ornamentation on its facade. Next to the south is the Hartford Building, an Art Deco style building built in 1920 for First Realty Company at 600 Second Avenue. On the southeast corner of Second Avenue and James Street the Collins Building (or Collins Block) was built in 1893 in the Richardsonian Romanesque Style on the former site of John Collins's own residence, which burned in the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. The last building visible in this image on Second Avenue is the Smith Tower, at 506 Second Avenue on the northeast corner of Second Avenue and Yesler Way; the 38 story building was completed in 1914, and remained Seattle's tallest building until the Space Needle overtook it in 1962.

Austin Seward (1885-1974) worked as a local photographer in the early 1920s for Pierson’s studio, a commercial photography firm.

Handwritten on negative: Part of Financial District, from Second Ave. & Columbia St., Seattle
Stamped on verso: Pierson Photo Co., Commercial Photographers, 401 Bay Bldg. Main 0204, Seattle, Wash.

Caption information source: Pacific Coast Architecture Database