$72.00 CAD
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Attractive photo of work crew doing railway track regrade, 4th Avenue area of Seattle. Railcars, digging excavator, spectators. Overhead, a trolley car crossing over on elevated track. In background something belching black smoke.
Sign on railcar ‘Bonds from Calhoon Dennis Real Estate 201-7 Alask-“
Written on negative ‘O.T. FRASCH SEATTLE -11’ . This was one of Otto Theodore Frasch’s most popular photos, originally taken in October 1907.
Written on front ‘Cutting down one of our hills”
Postmarked 'SEATTLE WASH Dec 14 1908’ ‘WORLD’S FAIR SEATTLE 1909’, mailed to Canada
Small postmark ink on front
This is a photo of the Fourth Avenue street regrade, taken in October 1907. Many of Seattle's hills were dug out or washed away to flatten the streets and raise property values. Houses and businesses on the hills were forced to move, not always agreeably.
Note the streetcar traveling up the tracks on the left, the crews working next to the steam shovel on the right, the trams carrying dirt in the center, and the audience (dressed in their best clothes) watching everywhere - even from the streetcar. This must have been one of his most popular images, because he printed many copies, even after the glass negative cracked.
