Throughout 2021 the Sunday Olympian’s Looking Back feature portrayed events and people from the Sylvester’s Window cityscape project, now available online. This photo, taken from the Old State Capitol building, shows Sylvester Park around the end of the 19th century. To the south of the park we see the planking of “the lid,” the predecessor of the 7th Avenue railroad tunnel. It was originally a trench dug along Seventh Avenue and capped by wooden planking. The trench was replaced by the current tunnel in 1913.
Robert Esterly photograph, late 1890s, State Library Photograph collection, Washington State Archives, image AR-07809001-ph000915
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2021