COURTESY OF MAUST CORP.
	Charles Maust built his clapboard Maust Block at the corner of 73rd Street and Winona Avenue in 1906. It lasted until the late 1960s, when it was replaced by this four-story apartment house distinguished by its rough exterior siding made of Marblecrete.
	PAUL DORPAT

Maust built his namesake block at the flatiron corner of 73rd Street and Winona Avenue in 1906. He rented the upstairs corner office to a physician and the center storefront to a cobbler, and he attached a gaudy second structure at the north end on which he marketed the range of his service: coal, wood, sand, gravel, flour, spuds, brick, lime, cement, plaster.

Although the company home and stables were beside the lake, much of the hauling was done on the central waterfront. One of the earliest contracts was with Black Diamond coal. Loaded at the pier, Maust wagons carried the coal to commercial and residential customers all over town. Eventually, Maust rolling stock was active from Blaine to Olympia. The company was also handling fish, and it was as a mover of fish — canned, fresh and frozen — that Maust got its reputation. For years it was headquartered at Pier 54, sharing space with Ivar's Acres of Clams and the Washington Fish and Oyster Co. Three Maust generations — Charles, Harold and Norman — ran the company until 1996, when Gary Dennis, a longtime employee and friend of Norman's, took over. Included in the company lore is a recollection by Charles' son Harold how during the Great Depression his dad laid him off in favor of a married man who had a family. Evidently, the Baptist preacher turned trucker kept his interest in souls.

Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and has published several books on early Seattle.