But these assertions are misleading, for perhaps of all the port's facilities built in the mid-teens this was the most physically regular (U-shaped) and hence somewhat nondescript. Unlike the port's giants at Smith Cove — at the time "the longest earth-filled piers in the world" — the Lander-Stacy complex set no records. Nor was it special. It was not for cold storage or grain, but for "general use."

Locals who remember this plant before it was destroyed for the "container revolution" may be somewhat confused by this early photograph. In the 1920s the two pier sheds were built out flush to East Marginal Way, with ornamented additions that harmonized with the architecture of the warehouse between them. People may remember that imposing two-block-wide façade.

After the Alaskan Way viaduct was extended south across these reclaimed tidelands to Hanford Street in 1959, the port turned Piers 28, 29 and 30 into one of its primary container fields by clearing away these buildings, filling in the slip and setting up the giant gantry cranes — evident in the "now" scene — for the speedy transfer of containers off and on ships parking parallel to the new Terminal 30.

In better days this field was filled with containers. Many of them now get off the boat in Tacoma. The traffic-clogging viaduct is one of the reasons this land is no longer so inviting to containers.

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