This photograph from the Washington State Digital Archives shows three men in front of T.C. Van Epps & Co. Real Estate Land Office, circa 1897.
Do you notice how wonderfully clean and spacious the sidewalk and building are? Maybe one of the men standing out front is T.C. Van Epps himself!
The only thing that jumps out at me as strange are the painted signs. They both have odd and unnecessary periods. Squeezing in the second period meant there wasn’t enough room for a space between the words Land and Office. Off the top of my head I can’t think of any modern sign that would include a period.
old spirituals 
The ornate column of the business front next to the “Real Estate-Land Office” is beautiful, and a lost art. The “Real Estate-Land Office” building has the same physical attributes the “Evans Brothers Insurance Office” building had that was on the north side of my family home. The Evans building was demolished to provide parking for the market on the north side of the that building. Ironically, there is a sign in the window for “Seattle Insurance Company” below a “For Sales” sign. It appears that a large pane of glass is broken.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It is beautiful. Funny enough, I was so focused on the signs I didn’t even notice the crack in the window!
LikeLike
I love the beautiful touches to these old buildings that are lacking in our architecture today.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s a lot to see in this picture though it doesn’t seem like it at first. Jax was noticing the column and I completely missed it at first!
LikeLike