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OK Hotel

2001 disestablishments in Washington (state)Buildings and structures in SeattleCulture of SeattleFormer music venues in the United StatesHotels in Seattle
Music venues in Washington (state)Pioneer Square, Seattle
Seattle OK Hotel 01
Seattle OK Hotel 01

The OK Hotel was an American bar and music venue located under the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle's Pioneer Square district. The club's 15-year-plus life span came to an end with the Nisqually earthquake of February 28, 2001, which damaged numerous buildings in the historic district.Most widely recognized as a prominent location in the movie Singles (1992), the OK Hotel was one of numerous active Seattle rock venues during the celebrated local scene of the late eighties. The first musical group to play live at the venue was local band Seers of Bavaria, featuring future bass player for pop-punk band Flop Paul Schurr on lead vocals. The club's debut headliner was Vexed, also from Seattle. Local bands such as Tad, Mother Love Bone, The U-Men, Screaming Trees, Green River (an early version of Mudhoney), Soundgarden, Bikini Kill, and Nirvana (including the first live performance of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on April 17, 1991) played at the OK Hotel; as well as touring punk, rock, and continental jazz artists. It is mentioned in "Thanx", the last track on Sublime's debut album 40 Oz. to Freedom. It was also where Queens of the Stone Age played their first live show.During the final years preceding the Earthquake, the OK Hotel had become a treasured home for Seattle's lively creative music culture, featuring artists Bill Frisell, Amy Denio, Robin Holcomb, Wayne Horvitz with Zony Mash and Ponga, the Living Daylights, Sweet Water, Medicine Hat, Black Cat Orchestra, and hip-hop group The Physics. Renovation of the building was completed in 2004 as residential property with 42 living spaces and artist studios which are open to the public during First Thursday Artwalks.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article OK Hotel (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

OK Hotel
Alaskan Way South, Seattle International District/Chinatown

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 47.600411111111 ° E -122.33519444444 °
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Address

OK Hotel (O. K. Hotel)

Alaskan Way South
98174 Seattle, International District/Chinatown
Washington, United States
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Seattle OK Hotel 01
Seattle OK Hotel 01
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Ballast Island (Seattle)
Ballast Island (Seattle)

Ballast Island was a small artificial island located on the Seattle Waterfront during the late 1800s. Frequent illegal dumping of ballast led to the designation of a specific region of the Seattle harbor where dumping was permitted. Emerging above the surface around 1880, it grew rapidly following additional dock developments in 1881 which largely encircled the island. It became an encampment site and refuge for Native American migrant workers from across the North Pacific coast, many of whom were employed seasonally as hop pickers. They were later joined by refugees of the city's indigenous Duwamish, following the destruction of a West Seattle village by white vigilantes. It additionally became a beacon for tourists, interested in seeing the native camps. Although encampments were more tolerated on the island than in other areas in the city, the native workers were increasingly viewed as squatters by local press. The Seattle Police Department repeatedly attempted to evict the occupants of the island during the 1890s, although were only able to clear the island for limited periods. Dock, road, and warehouse expansion ended native residence on the island in 1898. The island was eventually subsumed by fill during rail expansion in the 1900s, with much of the former island now lying several meters beneath various modern developments, including Alaskan Way. The boring of the SR 99 tunnel raised concerns that the site of the island would be disturbed, although state archaeological testing later confirmed that the island was not impacted by the project. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.