Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington
Encyclopedia : C : CA : CAP : Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington
Capitol Hill is the most densely populated neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. It is the center of gay life in Seattle and also a center of its counterculture, while also home to some of the city's grandest mansions.
The origin of the neighborhood's name is disputed. According to one story, James A. Moore, the real estate developer who platted much of the area, named it thus in the hope that the Washington government would move to Seattle from Olympia. According to another, Moore named it after the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Denver, Colorado, his wife's hometown. It is thought by the editors of [HistoryLink] that the true story is a combination of the two.
Prior to Moore's naming it so in 1901, Capitol Hill was known as Broadway Hill.
Geography
It is bounded by Interstate 5 to the west, beyond which are Downtown, Cascade, and Eastlake; by Washington State Route 520 and Interlaken Park to the north, beyond which is Montlake; by E. Pike and E. Madison Streets to the south, beyond which are First Hill and the Central District; and by 23rd and 24th Avenues E. to the east, beyond which is Madison Valley.
Its main thoroughfares are Lakeview Boulevard E.; Bellevue, 10th, 12th, 15th, and 19th Avenues E.; and Broadway (north- and southbound) and E. Pine, E. Pike, E. John, E. Thomas, and E. Aloha Streets and E. Olive Way (east- and westbound). Of these streets, large portions of Pike, Pine, Broadway, 15th and, to a slightly lesser extent, Olive, are lined almost continuously with streetfront businesses.
The highest point on Capitol Hill, at 444.5 feet above sea level, is in Volunteer Park, adjacent to the water tower. Capitol Hill is also responsible for half of Seattle's 12 steepest street grades: 21% on E. Roy Street between 25th and 26th Avenues E. (western slope), 19% on E. Boston Street between Harvard Avenue E. and Broadway E. (western slope) and on E. Ward Street between 25th and 26th Avenues E. (eastern slope), and 18% on E. Highland Drive between 24th and 25th Avenues E. (eastern slope), on E. Lee Street between 24th and 25th Avenues E. (eastern slope), and on E. Roy Street between Melrose and Bellevue Avenues E. (western slope).
Ambience
Always an eclectic neighborhood, since about 1980 Capitol Hill has also had a reputation as the center of gay life in Seattle, although it has never been as exclusively gay as The Castro in San Francisco or Davie Village in Vancouver, British Columbia. Seattle's main gay pride parade abandoned the hill in 2006 for a downtown route, but the Dyke March and a neighborhood pride parade still drew a crowd estimated at 50,000+ (compared to the main parade's 150,000+).[link] It also has a reputation as the heart of "hip" Seattle, and was the neighborhood most closely associated with the grunge scene, although most of the best-known music venues of that era were actually located slightly outside the neighborhood.A stroll down Broadway or through the Cal Anderson park will reveal a wide diversity of people, with couples walking dogs, punks hanging out on street corners, tech workers that commute to work across Lake Washington buying groceries and, in the evenings, club goers from all over Seattle and Bellevue visiting the scene for a night out. Shopping in the numerous retail stores and boutiques offers everything from African art to Hot Topic and there are many used/vintage clothing stores on Broadway, a few art galleries along E. Pike and E. Pine Streets, and many music stores that specialize in hip-hop, goth/industrial, or rare used records.
Most of the Hill's major thoroughfares are dotted with coffeehouses, taverns and bars, and residences cover the gamut from modest motel-like studio apartment buildings to some of the city's grandest and most venerable mansions, with the two extremes sometimes cheek-by-jowl.
The neighborhood figures prominently in nightlife and entertainment, with many bars hosting live music and with numerous fringe theaters. Capitol Hill is also home to two of the city's best-known movie theaters, both of them part of the Landmark Theatres chain and both of them architectural conversions of private meeting halls: the Harvard Exit, in the former home of the Women's Century Club (converted in the early 1970s) and the Egyptian Theatre, in a former Masonic lodge (converted in the mid-1980s). The Broadway Performance Hall, located on the campus of Seattle Central Community College, also hosts a variety of lectures, performances, and films.
Landmarks and institutions
- Cal Anderson Park
- Cornish College of the Arts
- Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery
- Lake View Cemetery
- Louisa Boren Park
- Roanoke Park
- St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral
- Seattle Asian Art Museum
- Seattle Central Community College
- Seattle Preparatory School
- Volunteer Park
Bars and Clubs
Past
At least since the 1970s, Capitol Hill has played a prominent role in Seattle's nightlife. Prominent bars in the 1970s, inevitably also full-scale restaurants, were the upmarket, elegant Henry's Off Broadway and two Broadway "fern bars" owned by Jerry Kingen. (Kingen also turned the Red Robin from a single tavern at the southern end of the University Bridge into a restaurant chain.) The bars at his Boondocker's, Sundecker's, & Greenthumb's and Lion O'Reilly's & BJ Monkeyshines were both popular with a young crowd, mostly heterosexual and single. Lion O'Reilly's had a last hurrah as "Lion O's Rock Hard Cafe", which resulted in legal action by the Hard Rock Cafe chain. Surviving from that era, with a rougher-hewn version of the same style, is Canterbury Ales and Eats on 15th Avenue E.With a similar look, but far more emblematic of what was to come, was the Brass Connection, a bar and disco with a predominantly gay male crowd and occasional drag shows. It played a key role in moving the heart of Seattle's gay nightlife scene from relative hidey-holes, mainly in the Pioneer Square and Belltown neighborhoods, to higher-profile venues, mainly on Capitol Hill and especially in the Pike-Pine corridor.
In the late 1980s, another gay bar, Tugs Belltown, moved up to the Hill (corner of Pine and Belmont) and became Tugs Belmont. In this new venue, it played a key role in Seattle's burgeoning fringe theater scene. Possibly the first bar in Seattle since before the Prohibition era to regularly host theater performances, in the early 1990s it was the primary home of the Greek Active Theater, founded by Dan Savage (working pseudonymously as Keenan Hollohan).
Under Washington State's liquor laws, until the 1990s it was virtually impossible to have a bar that served hard liquor without having a full restaurant: at least 40% of revenues had to come from food. Drinking establishments were (and still are) divided into bars with full licenses and taverns that could sell only beer, wine, and hard cider.
The scene along the Pike-Pine corridor was never exclusively gay. In the 1990s Moe's, on Pike just east of Broadway (now the site of Neumo's) transformed a former Salvation Army facility into a combination bar, restaurant, and performance venue, with local and national acts as well as dance nights, and became for several years one of Seattle's most prominent musical performance venues. Now Neumo's and nearby Chop Suey continue that live music tradition and dozens of trendy (and friendly-but-divey) bars and clubs cater to gay- and straight-themed nightlife.
In December, 2005 new Washington State health codes came into effect that required smokers to remain at least twenty-five feet from all doorways, open windows and vents while smoking. With doors of neighboring businesses frequently within fifty feet of each other, this technically leaves no where on the sidewalk to smoke. A difficult issue that affects all businesses in the neighborhood, and bars and clubs are still finding means to accommodate their smoking and non-smoking clients while remaining within the law.
Current
- 22 Doors
- The Bad Juju Lounge
- The Baltic Room
- Barça
- Bus Stop
- Cafe Metropolitain
- Capitol Club
- Canterbury Ales and Eats
- C.C. Attle's
- Cha Cha Lounge
- Chapel
- Charlie's
- Chop Suey
- Clever Dunne's
- The Comet
- The Crescent
- The Cuff Complex
- The Elite
- The Hopvine
- The Honeyhole
- The Jade Pagoda
- The Maharaja
- Kincora's Irish Pub
- Liberty
- Linda's
- Madison Pub
- Man Ray
- Martin's off Madison
- Mercury
- Neighbours
- Neumo's
- Purr
- R Place
- Rosebud Cafe
- The Satellite
- Seattle Eagle
- Six Arms
- The Stumbling Monk
- Sugar
- Summit Public House
- Thumper's
- The Vogue
- The War Room
- Wild Rose
Coffeehouses
Besides the inevitable large Seattle-based chains—Starbucks, Seattle's Best Coffee (now owned by Starbucks), and Tully's Coffee—Capitol Hill has been home to some of the city's most prominent locally owned coffeehouses.The now-defunct Cause Celebre coffeehouse and ice cream parlor on 15th Ave. E. started life as a worker-owned collective, but was eventually bought out by one of its founding members. From about 1978 until the mid-1980s, it declared itself to be "Capitol Hill's living room."
B&O Espresso (at the corner of Belmont Ave. E. and Olive Way, hence B&O: Belmont and Olive), founded 1976, could be considered one of Seattle's oldest surviving coffeehouses, except that it has morphed over the years into more of a restaurant.
Through most of the 1990s, the Cafe Paradiso (now the Caffe Vita on Pike) was one of the few all-ages music venues in Seattle, slipping through the cracks of draconian Teen Dance Ordinance by being, in theory at least, a no-dancing venue.
The minuscule Coffee Messiah (early 1990s – 2006), decorated in religious kitsch, serving little but coffee and vegan pastries, was also an all-ages performance venue for several years. The crowd frequently spilled out onto the pavement (especially because they could not smoke inside). Acts ranged from punk rock to drag cabaret, including a cross between the two known as Pho Bang (which later continued at other venues).
- Bauhaus Coffee
- Caffe Ladro (local chain)
- Caffe Vita (local chain)
- Dilettante Chocolates Cafe & Patisserie
- Espresso Vivace (2 locations, both on the Hill)
- Faire
- Fuel Coffee
- Insomnia
- Joe Bar
- Red Line Cafe
- Top Pot Doughnuts (local chain)
- Victrola Coffee & Art
Recent History
Most recently, Seattle suffered its worst mass-killing since the 1983 Wah Mee massacre when a 28-year-old man named Kyle Aaron Huff committed the Capitol Hill massacre.Capitol Hill, ever the politically active neighborhood, saw marches of protestors that walked up the hill from downtown, which were then turned back and dispersed by police with tear-gas in the days that followed "N30". N30 was a day of rioting in downtown Seattle during the WTO Conference of 1999.
External links
- [Capitol Hill] on SeattleWiki
- [A highly detailed and informative map of Capitol Hill] on Wikimapia
- [The Capitol Hill Block Party], which features local bands every summer.
- [Seattle Pride Parade]
References
- Kathryn McGrath, "[Clubless in Seattle]", University of Washington Daily Online, October 3, 1996: on the Teen Dance Ordinance.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.