A Look Back at Fourth Street

Fourth Street was a bustling place in the days of … bustles. Try as we might, we couldn’t find any remnant of this 1880s view down Fourth Street, apart from the venerable Hawkeye Insurance Building near the center of the image. That Italianate landmark was built in 1868, before this busy scene with its wagons and loading ramps on the street of well-trod dirt. This view looks south from the perspective of the Kirkwood building at Walnut Street. The building at left housed an insurance company. The tower in the distance rises above the current site of Goldfinch restaurant. The rest? Alas, it’s history.