“Dancing Until…?” A Community Strategy for Preserving the Black and Tan Club’s Cultural Heritage in Seattle’s Chinatown International-District

Abstract

This graduate thesis determines a post-positivist framing for preserving intersectional spaces and heritage in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District by engaging with the legacy, memory, and current preservation discourse of the 20th century music venue, the Black and Tan Club. The resulting research engages with multiple histories and community-rooted narratives for preserving the history of the Black and Tan Club and highlights actionable and constructive strategies for the preservation of the Club’s cultural heritage. Preservation strategies developed by local cultural heritage groups such as the Black and Tan Hall, the Wing Luke Museum, the Black Heritage Society of Washington State, and Friends of Little Saigon offer an initial conceptual grounding for future preservation plans. Secondly, the experiences and opinions of current tenants at the case study property regarding historic preservation offer invaluable insights into existing community sentiments. This work expands upon Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality within the field of historic preservation and documents cultural heritage in the polyvocal, multi-ethnic context of Seattle’s Chinatown-International District. More importantly, this study contends with the reality of cultural erasure of non-dominant groups in diverse spaces and how preservationists and community groups can transcend single-issue or single-history narratives. Through working with commercial and cultural stakeholders associated with the former Black and Tan Club property, a community record was developed for 1201 South Jackson Street’s potential contributions to Seattle’s history and the historic development of integrated spaces, particularly in Chinatown-International District. Analyzing stakeholder attitudes toward place, power, and memory related to the Black and Tan Club presents opportunities for cross-cultural dialogue and, more broadly, invaluable research for a field of historic preservation as it struggles to represent the histories of an increasingly diverse United States.