to those mentioned previously. Below the frieze are several rows of brick corbelling. The decorative parapet and frieze form a smooth curve around the angled corner of the building. Just below the frieze at this point was a plaster conch shell decoration which has been missing for several years, most likely due to deterioration. The corner has recessed nine foot wooden double doors at the street level, now sheathed in brushed copper. History The Builders Edwin M. Church was born in New York and spent his early years all over the midwest, serving in the 1st Iowa Cavalry Regiment during the American Civil War. After living in Kansas for several years, he and his family traveled west by train to San Francisco where they boarded the steamer Pacific. This steamer would sink off of Cape Flattery on its next voyage, killing all but two aboard. Church arrived in Seattle in May 1875 where he briefly lived near Auburn. His family finally settled on a large plot of land in Houghton on the eastern shore of Lake Washington by the end of 1876. During this time Church worked as a bricklayer while his family tended to crops. He eventually sold most of the property to other settlers, excluding the plot for his house, which he rebuilt in 1880 and expanded in 1886. Harry French, whose father, S. Foster French had brought them to the area from Maine in August 1872, was one of the earliest settlers in what would become Kirkland. Their original home, though moved from its original location, still stands and is one of the oldest homes on the East Side. The Building In the spring of 1889, Church purchased the Kirkland grocery store of J.J. Tompkins and became a businessman. He was appointed Kirkland's postmaster in June 1890 and by the end of the year, with Peter Kirk's plans for the town nearing certainty, Church joined forces with Harry D. French, son of one of Kirkland's earliest pioneers, to construct a $12,000 brick building at the Northeast corner of Market Street and Picadilly (now Seventh Avenue) to accommodate their businesses as well as the post office. Church and French purchased the 4 lots on the corner from the Kirkland Land & Improvement Co. on February 13, 1891 for $3,100 (About $89,300 in 2019) but it is unclear whether the building, which occupies the southern 2 lots, was completed