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Louisa Hotel in Seattle's Chinatown welcomes residents after being vacant for 50 years

No one has lived in the Louisa Hotel for half a century. It once housed immigrants who were stopping over on their way to work in Alaska canneries.

Built in 1909 in Seattle's Chinatown, the building fell into disrepair, the owners unable to afford the structural upgrades necessary to meet fire and earthquake codes. Now, it's been refurbished and is reopening as workforce housing for people making the median income, between $35,910 to $76,000 a year.

At the grand reopening of the building on Monday, there was a traditional Chinese lion dance and a Buddhist blessing. Tanya Woo, whose family co-owns the Louisa, said it should help bring good luck to the building, which has had its share of bad luck. It was the scene in 1983 of the Wah Mee massacre when 13 people died in a shooting and robbery in the gambling club. In 2013, a fire gutted 40 percent of the building.

The building at 669 S. King St. is in a designated historic district. As a result, historic features of the facade were either maintained or recreated. Woo said it made for a challenging project, but ultimately a rewarding one. Walking through the redone apartments, Woo points to found artifacts that are now on display, including a 1928 Canadian Pacific calendar, a mural from a jazz club that once operated in the basement and Chinese signs from businesses that once occupied the storefronts.

For Woo, this endeavor has been personal. Her late father bought the building in the 1960s and ran a bakery on the ground floor. She said she practically grew up there, so bringing the place back to life feels like "sharing my home."

All the years her family had the bakery, the upstairs apartments were empty. She remembers that the pigeons had pretty much taken over and at one point a red-tailed hawk flew in and was hunting the birds. "It was scary to go up there," she said.

Woo said she feels fortunate to be able to reopen Louisa. She said a lot of  owners of similar historic buildings in the Chinatown-International district haven't been able to find the money to do things like seismic upgrades and, as a result, the buildings are empty above the ground floor businesses. "It's a real crisis here," Woo said.

The community sees the reopening of the Louisa Hotel as a sign of hope. Community activist Ron Chew, the former director of the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, says he's thrilled by the redo of the Louisa.

"It's extraordinary," he said. "It's been a hole during the time it's been closed and now it feels like the center of the neighborhood is coming back to life. It's pretty special."

    
 

 

Paula is a former host, reporter and producer who retired from KNKX in 2021. She joined the station in 1989 as All Things Considered host and covered the Law and Justice beat for 15 years. Paula grew up in Idaho and, prior to KNKX, worked in public radio and television in Boise, San Francisco and upstate New York.