The Tour Saint-Jacques, a Flamboyant Gothic tower at the intersection of the Rue de Rivoli, is all that remains of the medieval Church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, demolished in 1797 during the French Revolution. This albumen silver print stereoview, mounted on a yellow card and numbered 22 in a titled series, captures the square from an elevated vantage point and dates to approximately the 1860s to 1870s, consistent with the card format and mount color. No photographer's imprint is visible on the mount.

The view looks across the Place de la Tour Saint-Jacques with horse-drawn omnibuses and open carriages occupying the broad paved foreground, pedestrians moving along iron-fenced garden paths below, and a dense canopy of mature trees framing the tower's Gothic stonework rising at the left edge. Haussmann-era limestone apartment blocks with mansard rooflines fill the middle distance, their uniform facades and ground-floor awnings reflecting the rebuilt Paris of the Second Empire.

It was during the Second Empire that major restoration efforts brought the tower back to prominence, with architect Théodore Ballu heading a redesign that created a 19th-century-style square and park around it. The creation of the Rue de Rivoli and the Boulevard de Sébastopol, which cross in front of the monument, transformed the character of the surrounding neighborhood entirely. This stereoview preserves the square at a formative moment in that transformation, with the new urban fabric of Haussmann's Paris visible in full.

The verso is printed on yellow stock with the series label "Place de la Tour St-Jacques" and the number 22 on the right edge; the upper right corner bears a manuscript inscription in ink reading "Cora S. Carpenter," and the upper left corner carries a pencil notation reading "70" alongside a stamped or written catalog number reading "24700."