File:Lake Washington Avenue, as seen from the southeast, Alaska-Yukon-Pacific-Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 1908 (AYP 902).jpg

English:

Caption on image: No. X18. Looking south-east on Lake Washington Ave.

Printed on verso: Portland Post Card Co. Seattle, Wash. and Portland, Ore. Official Post Card. Copyrighted 1908. A.Y.P.E. Co.

PH Coll 777 PPCC.18 (See also PH Coll 78.74)

• Subjects (LCTGM): Walkways--Washington (State)--Seattle; Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (1909 : Seattle, Wash.)--Facilities--Washington (State)--Seattle; Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (1909 : Seattle, Wash.)--Buildings--Washington (State)--Seattle
• Subjects (LCSH): Exhibition buildings--Washington (State)--Seattle

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This postcard, drawn the year before the Exposition, is not easily reconciled with the facilities as built. There does not appear to be any Lake Washington Avenue on any of the maps of the Exposition, but this make some sense for the similarly named Washington Avenue. In that case (see File:Lawn with Manufacturers and Agricultural Buildings, Alaska-Yukon-Pacific-Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 1909 (AYP 1030) (crop for comparison).jpeg), the building in the foreground would be the Manufactures Building; at far left, we would see the northern tip of the symetrically designed Agricultural Building and to the right of that the European Building. However, the brown building next to the right would be in the location of the (white) Alaska Building.

Furthermore, view to the right of the Manufactures Building is not congruent with, for example, File:Manufacturers Building, Alaska-Yukon-Pacific-Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 1909 (AYP 729).jpeg (sic on "Manufacturers" vs. "Manufactures").

If we were to take seriously the "looking southeast" on the postcard, this would be even less plausible. The building in the foreground would have to be the north tip of the Agricultural Building; at right would be the southern part of the Manufactures Building; and nothing else in the picture would have even a slight resemblance to the grounds as built.

Perhaps the person who drew the postcard was imagining the Auditorium (later the first Meany Hall) where the Alaska Building eventually went?

Here's an image during construction that may explain what was going on: the Manufactures Building and buildings to its left are in place, but the Alaska Building and U.S. Government Building have not yet been started. In particular, the Auditorium is visible in more or less this position, not yet blocked by the Alaska Building. So perhaps the only real inaccuracy (other than that the Exposition looked different once it opened) is the presumably imaginary building to the right of the Manufactures Building