This is the front of a Seattle condominium built in 1939 (edit: 1929). Text in question is engraved in a stone slab about halfway down. Sorry about picture quality, I know nothing about typography so it would be great if someone could point me in the right direction with this.
Worst case scenario I go and take my own photo of this thing.
As you say, this is very small image and details are ambiguous.
In 1939 architects still had their own lettering designs which they used for building inscriptions, which were done by hand. The technology of the day did not provide for the direct transfer of fonts to large scale letters.
Nevertheless, the lettering might have been modeled on a font rather than an architectural lettering design.
I don't see any major conflicts with a 1926 design by Rudolf Weiss for the Bauer foundry of Frankfurt, digitized as Weiss by Adobe https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/adobe/weiss/
Don
I got the date wrong, the building was finished in 1929. Anyways, what you're saying does make sense, Don. What I'm really looking for is just an approximation of this font. If you or someone else knows of and could post a font similar to this one in style and era, that would be very helpful.
OK 1929 would fit with a design from 1926. The architects might have wanted lettering with a contemporary feel rather than the traditional Trajan style inscriptions. Weiss reflects the ethos of the 1920s and is perhaps a fair match. Another digital version of it is Weiss Antiqua EF http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/ef/weiss-antiqua/
Don
That does have a similar look. Thanks for your help, I'll mark this as solved.
Captured from web.archive.org on 17 Mar 2015. view this capture