Rising like a terracotta tower against a peach-and-blue Texas sky, the Southwestern Life Insurance Building in downtown Dallas commands this vivid hand-colored postcard from April 1919 — its sixteen stories of warm brick and cream terra cotta ornament representing the city's booming Edwardian ambition. Designed by the noted firm Sanguinet & Staats and completed in 1913, the building was Dallas's tallest skyscraper for years, and this card captures the bustling street life below: horse-drawn wagons still share the brick pavement with early automobiles and crowds in period dress. The writer — dashing off a note to "Kid" from Dallas — mentions attending an all-night election watch party and catching motion picture shows, a wonderfully vivid slice of 1919 city life. The card is addressed to Miss Ruby in Alton, Illinois.