Hirabayashi Place is built on land occupied by Seattle’s Japanese American community in the early days of its settlement. In 2016, after years of low-rise commercial buildings on this site, the property was developed into a 96-unit affordable housing project...

This hotel was one of many single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels designed in the Chinatown-International District by the local father (Charles L.) and son (C. Bennett) architectural firm of Thompson and Thompson. Built as the Alki Hotel in 1910, the building...

Thompson and Thompson architects designed the Astor (SRO) Hotel building for the Cascade Corporation; a company whose corporate owners included Japanese Issei (first generation Japanese American) Kuranosi Hirade and Matajiro Tsukuno. Construction was completed in 1909, and unlike any other...

This intersection was the heart of Japantown (Nihonmachi). The northwest corner of this intersection was redeveloped in 1979 as the Imperial House apartments, a high-rise low-income apartment project that replaced several wooden-frame SRO hotels that were on this block. In...

In 1902, the two-room Main Street Annex school building was opened as an extended facility to the Main Street School (formerly called South School from 1873-1889) that was located around the corner and facing South Main Street. The Annex was...

The Danny Woo Community Garden is a 1.5-acre area containing almost 100 individual garden plots. Its initial construction was spearheaded by Robert “Uncle Bob” Santos, a long-time community leader and former director of InterIm Community Development Association (InterIm). “Uncle Bob”...

The Higo Ten-Cent Store (named Higo Variety Store in 1957) was the primary business in the Jackson Building, a low-rise commercial office and retail storefront building that was completed in 1932. Very few buildings were constructed in the Depression years,...

This two-story white terra cotta office and commercial structure was originally called the Rainier Heat and Power Company (RH&PC) building. It was designed by J.L. (John Lawrence) McCauley and constructed in 1917 for hotel entrepreneur William Chappell. Chappell was the...

With 255 rooms and 6 commercial storefronts, the Bush Hotel was the second largest SRO hotel constructed in the CID. Only the Hotel Puget Sound (razed in 1992) exceeded its size with 444 rooms and nine storefronts. The Bush Hotel...

Hing Hay Park was constructed in two separate acquisitions, totaling .64 acres, or half a city block. In 1970, and as part of the Model Cities Program, the City of Seattle was looking for properties within the CID where a...

On the southwest corner of 6th Avenue South and South King Street stands a kiosk entitled “Honoring Filipino Americans in Chinatown International District 1911-2010.” The kiosk was dedicated in November 2012 and celebrates the lives and community building of Filipino...

Not every Chinatown has a gate, and the planning, funding, design, and permitting of the Seattle gate took the local Chinese community 50 years to complete. Dedicated in February 2008, the effort was spearheaded by Tuck Eng, president of the...

The Publix Hotel marks the last of the SROs built in the CID and was opened for business in December 1927, although the sheet metal entrance canopy indicates a 1928 date. Like the Bush Hotel, the Publix was designed by...

The Eastern Hotel was built by contractor David Dow in 1911 and commissioned by Chinese immigrant Chun Ching Hock for the Wa Chong Company, one of Seattle’s first Chinese mercantile and labor contracting businesses. This hotel was another location that...

Formerly known as the International Children’s Park, this .2-acre public park was built in 1981. Along with lawn, landscaping, play areas and equipment, and seating, the park has a bronze dragon for children to play on that was designed by...

The Chong Wa Benevolent Association, on the northeast corner of the intersection, was founded as an umbrella organization with representative membership comprised of Chinese family and district associations throughout the state, much like the Six Companies in San Francisco. The...

Designed by Thompson and Thompson, the Milwaukee Hotel was built in 1911 for Chinese entrepreneur Goon Dip. As an immigrant from Guangdong Province, Goon had spent the early years of his time in America working and learning about labor contracting...

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...

In the early 1880s, the Seattle First Baptist Church (founded in 1869) engaged in its outreach ministry by establishing mission churches to some of Seattle’s ethic communities that included the Scandinavian Baptist Church (1883), Japanese Baptist Church (1891), and the...

This landmark is the first Vietnamese-owned grocery store in the CID and near the business heart of Little Saigon. As an area that was once known for African American small businesses and jazz clubs, this neighborhood started to shift into...

The building that is now Nisei Vets Hall was constructed in 1938 and used as a meeting place (dojo) for learning and practicing Japanese martial arts (kendo kai). During the World War II years, the building was vacant when the...

In 2011, the Seattle Parks Department, Friends of Little Saigon, and interested community members identified an area of the community that would provide open space for the Little Saigon neighborhood. This .27-acre area will redevelop a portion of the city...

As part of a thriving and large Japanese American community, the Japanese Language School was established in 1902 and is the oldest such school in North America. In the early years, instruction in Japanese culture and language was given in...

The Seattle Buddhist Church or Seattle Betsuin services began in 1901 but its first church building was constructed in 1908 at 1020 Main Street. That church, along with other Chinese and Japanese businesses, was torn down in 1939 as part...

The boat shape of the Pho Bac Restaurant dates to the 1950s when the building was an ice cream shop. As Vietnamese businesses were beginning to settle in the neighborhood, the building became the site of the first pho (Vietnamese...