After her husband's death, Sarah sold the corner in 1889 to Edward Plummer, the son of another Seattle settler. Plummer put up his Plummer's Block, an ornate, two-story business block that brought him good rents until the "Panic of 1883" bankrupt first his renters and then Plummer himself, and his temporary namesake cash-cow reverted to Sarah.

The government chose the corner, in part, because real-estate agents proclaimed: "Our site is perfectly level and will not have to be filled or excavated. More important still, it will not be affected by a regrade on Third Avenue."

In this they were wrong. When the Third Avenue Regrade interrupted construction of the classical post office, the width and elevation of Third were changed sufficiently to require steps to ascend to the lobby from a narrow sidewalk.

On one of the longest planning and construction schedules set for any local building, the job ran from 1901 to 1909. By then the Armory, facing Union on the left, was replaced with a brick business block while Plymouth Congregational Church on the right was only two years from being replaced by Alexander Pantages' namesake theater.

Many locals will still remember the post office and theater. The classical post office was replaced with an undistinguished glass-curtain one, and a parking garage long ago dislodged the theater.

Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and has published several books on early Seattle.