Transcribed from photograph: "Garfield Memorial Service. September 26, 1881. At the Occidental Hotel. Front Street [1st Ave.] and James Street."

University of Washington Library Special Collections has this same photo (https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/curtis/id/319, on Commons at File:Crowd in Occidental Square in front of Occidental Hotel for the visit of President Hayes, Seattle, 1878 (CURTIS 319).jpeg) identified as "Crowd in Occidental Square in front of Occidental Hotel for the visit of President Hayes, Seattle, 1878". They had previously also identified it as the memorial for Garfield (and the buntings for both events seem to match) but later decided they had that wrong. Note in particular the building to the right of the hotel in (for example) File:President Garfield memorial service at Occidental Hotel, 1881 - DPLA - cc188740e47a5fecb86cbebf26b7b5e7.jpg, but absent here, which suggests that this is an earlier photo.

• 
  the present photo
• 
  Garfield memorial service, 1881. Note the building to the right of the hotel.