The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce was founded on April 17, 1882, by a group of 26 business and community leaders, to devise a way to win a $12,000 annual mail route to Alaska over a competing San Francisco steamship company. The Chamber's first decade was dominated by the fight to obtain a railroad for Seattle. Chamber founders Thomas Burke, Orange Jacobs, and John Leary led Seattle's bid for adequate rail facilities, which ended in success in 1893 when workers drove the last spike into the Great Northern Railway track and opened transcontinental travel to Seattle. The organization is still in existence, and as of 2019 remains the largest and most diverse business association in the Puget Sound region.

This photo shows the Chamber of Commerce building around 1925.

Signs in image: Bjork & Seren Tailors. Postal Telegraph. G.O. Guy Drugs - Fountain Lunch - Hot Buns 15 Cents
Handwritten on sleeve: Chamber of Commerce
Webster & Stevens number: 111427

Caption information source: https://www.seattlechamber.com/home/about/history/the1880s