X Great-Fire-begin-v-f-Spring-x-WEB December 21, 2014 1000 × 1613 Seattle Now & Then: Poetry and Prose at 1st and Madison Frye’s Opera House is about to be engulfed by the Great First of June 6, 1889 in this look south on First Ave. (then still Front Street) from Spring Street. The opera house, the tallest building on Front, is left-of-center.