I wonder why this image was taken.
There are a couple of groups of men standing around on corners for no apparent reason (definitely not posed for the camera) and some individuals peering out windows. Seems like a lot of curiosity about a photographer. Then there is the uniformed man striding purposefully across the street.

[A large part of Detroit Publishing's business was producing picture postcards, frequently of cityscapes, a huge market at the time. -tterrace]

The buildings in this scene at the corner of Center Street and Merchants Row rose in the aftermath of major fires. The bank building on the right side of the photo replaced a four-story brick block housing the Rutland Savings Bank that burned January 16, 1891. On February 18, 1906, a fire consumed the Bates House and all the other buildings on the left (northeast) corner of Merchants Row and Center Street. A thirty-minute video from the Rutland Historical Society tells the story of that fire. (Those buildings had replaced structures that burned in a 1868 conflagration.) Thus, this photo would have been taken some time after 1906. The "Mead" name on the newly-built, solid office building matches that of one of the City's most prominent citizens, its first mayor and future Vermont Governor John Mead.

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A safe place to keep all my marbles!

Possibly a subsidiary of "Uneeda Biscuit".

It's hard to tell for sure, given the angles in the 1905 picture and all, but my reasoned guess is that the long-departed U Want A Lunch is now the Bossy Cow ice cream shop. Despite that change, there has been remarkably little change in the streetscape in the 105 years since this photo was taken.
http://goo.gl/maps/fE9Zu

yes I do!