Treasured venue that hosted young Jimi Hendrix & Billie Holiday will be transformed into nonprofit performing arts center.
4Culture is thrilled to announce Historic Seattle’s purchase of the recently-designated Seattle Landmark Washington Hall in Seattle’s Central District for $1,500,000. The deal closed on Friday, June 12, 2009. Historic Seattle, a Preservation & Development Authority, purchased the building from the Sons of Haiti Masonic Lodge with the intention of preserving the treasured hall for cultural use. Following upgrades this summer, the facility will be available as early as September 2009 as a rehearsal, performance and event space for arts, cultural, and social groups.
The building was purchased with $250,000 from Historic Seattle, $250,000 from 4Culture, (King County Lodging Tax), and a loan from Key Bank.
Located at 153 14th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122, in Seattle’s Central District, Washington Hall, was built in 1908 as a settlement house and meeting/dance hall by the Danish Brotherhood Society. Purchased in 1973 by the Sons of Haiti Masonic Lodge, the facility has hosted hundreds of community events over the decades, including legendary musicians Billie Holiday and Jimi Hendrix. Other notable performers like Marian Anderson, Mahalia Jackson, Duke Ellington and Count Basie are also said to have played in the hall. Likewise, W.E.B. du Bois, Joe Louis, and Martin Luther King Jr. are reported to have spoken there. On the Boards, a non-profit arts organization, leased the auditorium from 1978-1998 to present local, national and international contemporary performances in the facility, like the early work of Spalding Grey, Meredith Monk, Mark Morris and many others.
Over the last several decades, the building had fallen into extreme disrepair and upgrades were beyond the financial capacity of the Sons of Haiti. The building was put on the market in 2007. 4Culture staff nominated the building for City of Seattle Landmark status, which it received in January 2009.
