The Great Migration of Seattle’s Buildings

The Post-Intelligencer man, on his way to the post office this morning, met his office coming down the street to meet him—or rather, what was its office a short time ago. The habit of being on the move among the wooden buildings of Pacific Avenue is spreading, and they have, one after the other, backed out onto Railroad street and rolled down that thoroughfare to some comfortable location onto which they have backed and settled down as if to remain. The last of these to develop the notion of migrating was the Campbell and Powell building, lately occupied in part by the P.I. branch office. Yesterday morning it was discovered sauntering down Railroad street with a view of locating southward. The departure of these wooden affairs has left a vacancy in the topography of Pacific Avenue that resembles that to a man's face when he has just had three of his front teeth pulled. In this vacancy, large fires were raging yesterday—clearance fires, however, which were rapidly consuming the debris left behind, and workmen are already engaged in preparing the lot for substantial brick buildings.