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This enormous terra cotta cartouche design featuring a stylized American Indian in headdress (which Seattle’s History Link reports may have been inspired by the portraiture of photographer Edward S. Curtis) adorns the upper stories of the historic Cobb Building in downtown Seattle. I wondered why a headdress usually indicative of tribes much further east than Washington state would have been featured. Then I saw an early 1900s Curtis photo of a young Salish boy in a feather headdress, so, perhaps not as off base for this location as I thought; but, given stereotypes of natives common for the period, who knows what was in the artist’s mind. You can see more photos of the eleven story Cobb Building at my More Seattle Stuff page and read about its interesting history in a great short article at History Link here. Many Seattlites adore this building that gracefully curves around a corner, one of the most impressive of all Seattle’s terra cotta ornamented buildings. It began life as a dedicated medical office building and three years ago became a very convenient address for 92 luxury apartment dwellers. This poor fellow is going to develop allergies and start sneezing if they don’t dust him off soon! He is at ground level just inside the building’s entrance portico, and so doesn’t receive the cleansing showers that keep all the others above him clean.
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