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News & ArtsThursday, September 1, 2011
Architecture The Great Panama Hotel
Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 8:52 AM
Another reason to love this building...
2
If only your shitass camera did justice to this tight little composition. You have a great eye (the filter that resides behind it) but your skills and equipment fail you.
3
Yeah, help us out here. I mean, I love it too, but this picture in particular?
While you're at it, maybe you could find out how the people across the street (behind you as you took this picture) got away with taking down the historical rice-bowl neon sign that is such an important part of Seattle's history. Not only is (or was) it a gorgeous sign, which originally featured not just the famous bowl and chopsticks but a trail of neon "steam" down the length of the building, but it was one of Seattle's biggest jazz clubs (and illegal drinking dens) called the New Chinatown.There's a picture of the sign on page 120 of Paul De Barros's "Jackson Street After Hours".
The New Chinatown was owned by Danny Woo and had a giant nightclub on the second floor and a thriving bootleg business downstairs. As a nightclub it was mostly an after-hours joint. Don Lanphere, Quincy Jones, Ray Charles -- this is where they got their start.
Sadly white Seattle doesn't give a crap about its history, especially its black history, so none of the amazing landmarks that remain have any notice or markers. Duke Ellington's and Louis Armstrong's bands played the Black and Tan at 12th and Jackson but you'd never know it was there. The New Chinatown isn't included in the city's landmarks plans; no one at the city has even heard of it, or any of the other nightclubs. The new owners of that building are apparently free to just throw away our history without a thought.
While you're at it, maybe you could find out how the people across the street (behind you as you took this picture) got away with taking down the historical rice-bowl neon sign that is such an important part of Seattle's history. Not only is (or was) it a gorgeous sign, which originally featured not just the famous bowl and chopsticks but a trail of neon "steam" down the length of the building, but it was one of Seattle's biggest jazz clubs (and illegal drinking dens) called the New Chinatown.There's a picture of the sign on page 120 of Paul De Barros's "Jackson Street After Hours".
The New Chinatown was owned by Danny Woo and had a giant nightclub on the second floor and a thriving bootleg business downstairs. As a nightclub it was mostly an after-hours joint. Don Lanphere, Quincy Jones, Ray Charles -- this is where they got their start.
Sadly white Seattle doesn't give a crap about its history, especially its black history, so none of the amazing landmarks that remain have any notice or markers. Duke Ellington's and Louis Armstrong's bands played the Black and Tan at 12th and Jackson but you'd never know it was there. The New Chinatown isn't included in the city's landmarks plans; no one at the city has even heard of it, or any of the other nightclubs. The new owners of that building are apparently free to just throw away our history without a thought.
4
@3, Thank you for writing a thoughtful piece to replace Charles' randomness. And about the same photo, too.
Didn't know a lot of that, and I should have.
Didn't know a lot of that, and I should have.
5
@Fnarf - really, thank you for this. I had no idea Paul DeBarros wrote a book.
Overall, a stellar comment.
Overall, a stellar comment.
7
@2:
"Your skills and equipment fail you."
Yeah, that's what she said! Yeah baby!
oh, wait . . . um
"Your skills and equipment fail you."
Yeah, that's what she said! Yeah baby!
oh, wait . . . um
8
@5, oh my lord, get you to a library Monday (they're closed this week) and check out "Jackson Street After Hours". I don't think it's possible to really live in Seattle without reading it. Also Quintard Taylor's "The Forging of a Black Community: A History of Seattle's Central District". And Gary Atkins's "Gay Seattle: Stories of Exile and Belonging", particularly the early chapters, because there is a reason why blacks and gays (and of course Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos) were all concentrated in places like Pioneer Square, the ID, and the CD -- the experiences are very different but closely related. The symbiosis between Asian gambling halls and African-American jazz clubs is really interesting, and gets no attention from official Seattle.
There are some really fascinating maps inside the Panama Hotel, in Charles's picture, inside the tea room of Nihonmachi, or "Japantown", as remembered by the people who used to live there, before Yesler Terrace, WWII internment, and I-5 destroyed that community. The perfect book about the ID hasn't been written yet, but there are a number of really good pamphlet-like books available from the SPL, and of course down the street there's the Wing Luke, which is disappointing in a lot of ways as a museum, unless you sign up for the fantastic tour of the upstairs areas.
I'm really pissed about that neon, dammit.
There are some really fascinating maps inside the Panama Hotel, in Charles's picture, inside the tea room of Nihonmachi, or "Japantown", as remembered by the people who used to live there, before Yesler Terrace, WWII internment, and I-5 destroyed that community. The perfect book about the ID hasn't been written yet, but there are a number of really good pamphlet-like books available from the SPL, and of course down the street there's the Wing Luke, which is disappointing in a lot of ways as a museum, unless you sign up for the fantastic tour of the upstairs areas.
I'm really pissed about that neon, dammit.
9
Did the Japanese restaurant right there on the street corner (at the bottom left of the picture go out of business? I finally decided to try it out back in June, but it was closed. It looks like there might be lights on inside.
13
@10
Shit, I just missed it. I think smoking was allowed there when I first found it, so I never tried it. A few years ago there was a cool little restaurant on Sixth near King next to where that Japanese bakery is now, but the damn Union Gospel mission that owned the building then kicked them out, claiming they needed the space for clothes to be dropped off. I miss that place.
Shit, I just missed it. I think smoking was allowed there when I first found it, so I never tried it. A few years ago there was a cool little restaurant on Sixth near King next to where that Japanese bakery is now, but the damn Union Gospel mission that owned the building then kicked them out, claiming they needed the space for clothes to be dropped off. I miss that place.
15
I love that building. I knew a former owner of that place way back in the day. As one of my many side jobs right out of college I used to occasionally go collect rents for him there. What a trip.
16
The building I like down there is the one between Jackson and King, one block west of the interstate. There is a faded sign that advertised chop suey and dancing, starting at midnight or something. I haven't looked at it in years, but it sounds like it was quite the place.
And I was always intrigued by Hong Kong, which seemed to have closed unexpectedly sometime in the 80's. They still had liquor bottles on display in one of the windows, until someone broke the window to steal the bottles. They redid the building a few years back and all of that went away, which was too bad - it looked like it had some fabulous 60's decor.
Speaking of that, why were the old school Asian restaurants so much snazzier? Most of the new ones settle for flourescent lighting and ugly rent-a-center type furniture.
And I was always intrigued by Hong Kong, which seemed to have closed unexpectedly sometime in the 80's. They still had liquor bottles on display in one of the windows, until someone broke the window to steal the bottles. They redid the building a few years back and all of that went away, which was too bad - it looked like it had some fabulous 60's decor.
Speaking of that, why were the old school Asian restaurants so much snazzier? Most of the new ones settle for flourescent lighting and ugly rent-a-center type furniture.
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