On Monday, I mentioned that A.W. Piper, who served on the Seattle City Council from 1877 to 1878, is considered by some to be our city's first socialist councilmember. Here, courtesy of the Webster & Stevens Collection at the Museum of History and Industry, is a photo of Mr. Piper walking along a downtown sidewalk circa 1878—his last year on the council. MOHAI's caption:

Before the 1870s, Seattle's Front Street was a rough path filled with stumps and cut by ravines. The city pulled out the stumps, filled in the gullies, and smoothed out the street. It also built a new wooden sidewalk with guard rails to keep people from falling down into the tidal flats. This photo, looking south from Madison Street, was taken by the Peterson Brothers in 1878 or 1879. A.W. and Walter Piper, and their dog Jim, walk along the the new wooden sidewalk by the newly graded Front Street, now First Avenue.

You wouldn't know it from this photo of Seattle-in-the-making, but the 1870s saw the rise of America's "Gilded Age." A lot of people have compared our current condition to the conditions of those years. Fitting, then, to have a socialist back on the council.