Bush Hotel and Hing Hay Park, Seattle, March 11, 2018, Photo by Joe Mabel (CC BY-SA 4.0)
China Gate Restaurant, Seattle, January 18, 2007, Photo by Joe Mabel (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Former Japanese Baptist Church with building built under it, 672 S Jackson St, Seattle, October 15, 2020, HistoryLink photo by David Koch
Japanese Church not lowered after regrade, February 1910, photo from Washington State Historical Society
Jackson Street regrade, Seattle, ca. 1908, Courtesy MOHAI (1983.10.8131)
Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company depot (now Union Station), Seattle, Washington, March 29, 1911
by Marie Rose Wong, PhD
Listen (English Only)
-
Seattle’s Chinatown-International District (CID) is a unique multicultural neighborhood. Unlike other U.S. cities, the Asian American community in Seattle occupies a shared geography, where immigrant groups settled with and among one another. In addition to Asian Americans, who now comprise about 60 percent of the district’s population, the neighborhood was settled with Northern, Eastern, and Western Europeans, and Black and Native Americans. Chinese immigrants began settling in lower downtown Seattle in the 1860s, followed by successive waves of Japanese (1890s), Filipino (1910s), and Southeast Asians (1970s). The resulting neighborhood is one that is distinctive in cultural placemaking and cohesive in that the residents and businesses share a common vision of celebrating, protecting, and supporting the neighborhood.
Early Chinese and Japanese settlement was originally located in the northeast corner of the Pioneer Square neighborhood, moving to its current location beginning in 1910. The relocation became a necessity because of urban redevelopment and public works projects that included the construction of the Union and King Street stations, and the Jackson Street Regrade project. Seattle’s CID was built in an area the city had designated in 1892 as a location for illegal and unseemly land uses that included dance halls, gambling and bottle clubs, and sex-worker establishments. For its new Asian American residents, it was a place of home and commercial businesses, many of which were storefronts in residential hotel buildings with spare living quarters in back or upstairs.
Federal laws that restricted Asian immigration and naturalization also prevented them from citizenship and the right to own land and property. Circumventing discriminatory laws was done by purchasing land through the formation of corporate partnerships in which the corporation was the legal owner. Many buildings in the CID core reflect this type of ownership, with two building types emerging — low-rise commercial buildings, and single-room occupancy (SRO) residential hotels that met the demand for affordable central city housing for a population that was comprised primarily of male laborers. In American Chinatowns, Japantowns, and Filipino communities, SROs provided the stage for cultural activity and built expression of an immigrant population. SRO rooms provided a home to transient workers who left for seasonal jobs in canneries, railroad construction and maintenance, lumber industries, and farms, and then returned to live in the CID during the off-season.
The CID is one of eight Seattle neighborhoods to be designated an historic district. As such, any proposed change or addition to this area, which includes anything from color to structural change, is reviewed by city staff and also by a citizen advisory board comprised of people who live, work, or own property in the neighborhood. Within the historic district there is an additional layer of designation by the National Register of Historic Places, which acknowledges the core of single-room occupancy residential buildings and commercial structures. Public art and symbolism, and community resilience and strength are reflected in these buildings and the spaces that help define them. Cultural street signs, murals, statues, landscaping, and the sights, smells, and sounds of ethnic foods combine as testaments to the people who built and are vested in this multicultural neighborhood.
This tour visits the core areas and landmarks of the CID’s Chinatown, Japantown (Nihonmachi), Filipino Town, and Little Saigon.
Tour Stops
Hirabayashi Place
Details
Alki Hotel
Details
Astor Hotel/Nippon Kan Theater
Details
Intersection of 6th and Main
Details
Main Street Annex School and H. T. Kubota Building
Details
Danny Woo Community Garden
Details
Higo Ten-Cent Store
Details
C&T Building
Details
Bush Hotel
Details
Hing Hay Park and the Residential Hotel Core
Details
Filipino American Kiosk
Details
Chinatown Gate
Details
Publix Hotel
Details
Eastern Hotel
Details
Donnie Chin International Children’s Park
Details
Chong Wa Benevolent Association
Details
King Street Landmarks
Details
Chinn Apartments/Hip Sing Building
Details
Chinese Southern Baptist Church
Details
Viet Wah Grocery
Details
Nisei Vets Hall
Details
“Little Saigon Park”
Details
Japanese Language School or Nihon Go Gakko
Details
Betsuin Buddhist Temple
Details
Pho Bac Restaurant
Details
Hirabayashi Place
442 S Main Street
View Tour Stop
Alki Hotel
200 5th Avenue S
View Tour Stop
Astor Hotel/Nippon Kan Theater
628 S Washington Street
View Tour Stop
Intersection of 6th and Main
6th Avenue S and S Main Street
View Tour Stop
Main Street Annex School and H. T. Kubota Building
519 S Main Street
View Tour Stop
Danny Woo Community Garden
620 S Main Street
View Tour Stop
Higo Ten-Cent Store
604 S Jackson Street
View Tour Stop
316 Maynard Avenue S
View Tour Stop
Bush Hotel
621 S Jackson Street
View Tour Stop
Hing Hay Park and the residential hotel core
Intersection of Maynard Avenue S and S King Street
View Tour Stop
Filipino American kiosk
Southwest corner, 6th Avenue S and S King Street
View Tour Stop
Chinatown Gate
5th Avenue S and S King Street
View Tour Stop
Publix Hotel
504 5th Avenue S
View Tour Stop
Eastern Hotel
506 Maynard Avenue S
View Tour Stop
Donnie Chin International Children’s Park
700 S Lane Street
View Tour Stop
Chong Wa Benevolent Association
522 7th Avenue S
View Tour Stop
King Street landmarks
S King Street between 6th Avenue S and 8th Avenue S
View Tour Stop
Chinn Apartments/Hip Sing Building
420 8th Avenue S
View Tour Stop
Chinese Southern Baptist Church
925 S King Street
View Tour Stop
Viet Wah Grocery
1032 S Jackson Street
View Tour Stop
Nisei Vets Hall
1212 S King Street
View Tour Stop
“Little Saigon Park”
1224 S King Street
View Tour Stop
Japanese Language School or Nihon Go Gakko
1400 to 1414 S Weller Street
View Tour Stop
Betsuin Buddhist Temple
1427 S Main Street
View Tour Stop
Pho Bac Restaurant
1314 S Jackson Street
View Tour Stop
![HistoryLink Tours — Chinatown-International District (32) HistoryLink Tours — Chinatown-International District (32)](https://i0.wp.com/historylink.tours/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pano-background-2160x504.jpg)
Brought to you byHistoryLink
This tour made possible by generous support from
Sorry. Something went wrong.
Please go back and try again, or use the main menu above.
We use cookies on this website to minimize alerts and track analytics. More Info