HistoryLink Tours

Chinn Apartments/Hip Sing Building

Built in 1910 and while the Kong Yick buildings were under construction, the Chinn Apartments was the smallest SRO hotel to be built in the CID with 25 single rooms and three storefronts. The meeting room and kitchen for the Hip Sing Tong (Association) was located on the fourth floor and included a canopy structure and a wrought iron balcony that projected along the front façade. As one of four tongs in Seattle that included the Hop Sing, Suey Sing, and Bing Kung Associations, the Hip Sings were a secret society whose membership was not based on familial or district ties. Membership was discretionary and associated with an interest that was shared with its members and was often involved with protection of business interests. Like family and district associations, the tongs also had roots to associations in China but were anti-establishment organizations. The involvement that was undertaken by tongs can be broadly characterized as protective, political, criminal, or benevolent in nature and their activities were, for the most part, confined to Chinatown.

Continue to walk on King Street and walk under Interstate 5 until you reach 10th Avenue S and look across the street to the southwest corner.