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The Beginning of the District |
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Seattle's
Chinatown-International District, a neighborhood nestled
south of downtown, is the cultural hub of the Asian American
community. It rose not far from the waterfront, on reclaimed
tide flats. During a gigantic city regarding project,
the Jackson Street Regrade, completed in 1910, this muddy
wasteland was filled in with earth, buildings were erected
and the Chinatown - International District was born. |
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Who lived here and Why? |
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It is perhaps the only area in the continental United States where Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, African Americans, Vietnamese, Koreans, and Cambodians, settled together and built one neighborhood. In the beginning, sojourners from Asia - mostly single men - came by steamship and rail into the new port city, seeking refuge from poverty and war. They crowded into hotels, storefronts and employment halls which emerged near the railroad station and waterfront. These men came when the city was young to work in the canneries, railroads, and mines.
Many worked in the businesses which grew up around these enterprises - laundries, hotels, restaurants, stores and gambling houses. They lived frugally, finding comfort in familiar surroundings shrouded from the harsh discrimination outside. Those that decided to stay brought wives, children and relatives to live with them. |
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The Historical Buildings |
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The first structures to go up in the new area were the Kong Yick buildings, financed by the entrepreneur Goon Dip, establishing the Chinese community in the area after it had been displaced from the original Chinatownl location near Second Avenue and South Washington Street. The Japanese community developed a Nihonmachi or Japantown along Main Street bordering the new Chinese settlement. The Japanese businesses - restaurants, bathhouses, laundries, dry goods stores and markets - vanished when their owners were herded off to Internment Camps during World War II. The Filipinos, the third Asian group to arrive, found their way into area hotels, seeking connections for work in the canneries. Some operated cafes, pool halls, barbershops and other small businesses. |
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Learn more about Goon Dip |
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Learn more about early Chinatown |
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The African American Influence in the District |
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African Americans also settled in the area, especially during WWII, when war industry jobs were plentiful, establishing diners, groceries, taverns, tailor shops and night clubs. For many years, Seattle's after-hours jazz scene. |
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Moving into the 21st Century |
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After immigration quotas opened up in 1965, new Chinese arrivals, including families, began to repopulate area hotels. But the decision to build the Kingdome on the western edge of the District, coupled with the construction of the Interstate 5 freeway, created a threat to the area's survival. By the 1970s, over half of the area's deteriorating hotels had shut down, and many longtime businesses had moved out of the area.
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During this time, young Chinese, Japanese and Filipino student activists, rallying under the banner of Asian American unity, led a fight to reclaim the area. They obbied for low income housing, set up bilingual social service programs, and formed a public corporation to preserve and renovate historic buildings.
College educated Asian American professionals - accountants, lawyers, doctors, dentists and social workers - set up offices in the former haunts of their parents and grandparents. With public funds, hotels and streets were refurbished, new senior apartments were erected and community based service centers were established. In the 1980s, refugees from Vietnam opened restaurants, markets, and clothing and jewelry stores. Many set up shop in old buildings and newly constructed malls near 12th Avenue and South Jackson Street. Others opened storefronts in the core of the International District. With the expansion of business activity, the eastern boundary of the district has moved beyond the freeway. An old community - bustling with history and culture. |
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