Template:Potomac Block

The adjacent Potomac Block and Bicknell Block originally housed prominent retailers of the day, then were joined together in 1906 by Coulter's department store to form a complex, opening it as a new, 157000 sqft store in June, 1905.

Potomac Block
The Potomac Block, 213–223 S. Broadway, was from 1905 to 1917 known as the B. F. Coulter Building. It was originally developed by lumberyard and mill owner J. M. Griffith. It was designed in 1888 by Block, Curlett and Eisen in Romanesque architectural style and opened on July 17, 1890.

Tenants included:
 * Ville de Paris department store (at 221–223, from 1893 through 1906),
 * City of London Dry Goods Co., which moved here from next door at #211 in August 1895 and advertised for this location through August 1899.

It was the first time major retail stores opened on South Broadway, in what would be a shift of the upmarket shopping district from 1890 to 1905 from around First and Spring to South Broadway. In 1904, Coulter's bought the Potomac Block, and combined it with the Bicknell block to create its new store that opened in 1905.

After Coulter's moved:
 * 215 continued as a branch of Coulter's through 1927. Then, 215–217 was home to the Pacific Furniture House in the 1940s.
 * 219 housed Fisch's Department Store in the 1940s.

The building was demolished in 1953 and is still the site of a parking lot.

Bicknell Block
The Bicknell Block (or Bicknell Building) at 225–229 S. Broadway, with back entrances at 224–228 S. Hill Street. was part of Coulter's from 1905 from 1917. After Coulter's moved in 1917, it housed the Western Shoe Co. (through 1922), later known as the Western Department Store (1922–1928). Lettering covered the face of the building from top to bottom through the end of the 1950s: "THE LARGEST SHOE DEPT. IN THE WEST".