Centralia Washington Comey Avenue Street Scene Real Photo Postcard

Centralia, Washington, originally founded as Centerville in the mid-19th century and renamed in 1891, developed as a crucial timber, coal mining, and railroad center in the Pacific Northwest. Tower Avenue served as the city's principal commercial thoroughfare, bustling with activity and lined with businesses that catered to the growing population of the surrounding agricultural and industrial region. The architectural style, featuring false-front wood-frame structures and awnings, is characteristic of American boomtowns from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, placing this image likely in the 1900s or 1910s.