Theodore E. Peiser ( 1853 - 1922 ) was an early photographer in Seattle , Washington and the Pacific Northwest . His studio and many of his photographs were lost in the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 . His surviving photographs include one of the few photographs of the Seattle skyline from Beacon Hill before the fire as well as the Yesler-Leary Building in 1885 , several years before it burned in the fire . He also captured the first and second Occidental Hotel buildings that preceded the Seattle Hotel and Sinking Ship . He also documented the debut of the first Seattle Street Railway horse-drawn streetcar in 1884 with mayor John Leary
Great Seattle Fire
Great Seattle Fire
Theodore Peiser