After moving to Seattle in 1892, furniture maker Edgar Ray Butterworth (1847-1921) went full time into the undertaking business, motivated by the $50 paid to take each dead body off the street. A pioneer of the modern approach to the business of undertaking, he built the city's first custom-built modern mortuary in 1903, the Butterworth Block at 1921 First Avenue.
This image shows one of Butterworth & Son's impressive funeral wagons, which were stored in the basement of the four story building, accessible via Post Alley. Clarence Bagley credits Butterworth with owning the first hearse north of the Columbia River.
Caption information source: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/special-reports/ghost-stories-haunt-pike-place-market
ID Number: SHS18953
Date: Circa 1905
Physical Description: 1 copy negative: b&w ; 4 x 5 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
