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The Penthouse (Seattle)

1960s in Seattle1962 establishments in Washington (state)1968 disestablishments in Washington (state)Buildings and structures in SeattleCulture of Seattle
Former music venues in the United StatesHotels in SeattleMusic venues in Washington (state)Pioneer Square, Seattle
Seattle First Avenue looking north from James Street 1916
Seattle First Avenue looking north from James Street 1916

The Penthouse was a jazz club in Seattle, most remembered for John Coltrane's performance there in September 1965.The Penthouse opened in 1962 in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood, founded by Charlie Puzzo. Over the next seven years, Puzzo presented such artists as Miles Davis, Bill Evans, The Montgomery Brothers, Stan Getz, Anita O’Day, Bill Cosby, Little Richard and Aretha Franklin. The club was on the ground floor of the Kenneth Hotel at 701 First Avenue, near the corner of Cherry Street, a building originally built as the Safe Deposit Building after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, replacing the 1884 Merchant’s National Bank Building on the same site. Jim Wilke hosted Thursday night broadcasts from the club for KING radio.The saxophonist John Coltrane performed at the club September 30, 1965, with a sextet consisting of Coltrane on tenor and soprano saxophones, Pharoah Sanders on tenor saxophone, Donald Garrett on bass clarinet and double bass, McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on double bass and Elvin Jones on drums. They were also joined on Afro-Blue by Joe Brazil and Carlos Ward and a third unidentified alto saxophonist and on another piece by an unidentified thumb pianist. Much of the session was issued 1971 in by Impulse! Records as Live in Seattle; other portions including Coltrane's last performance Billy Strayhorn's Lush Life appeared later on the album The Unissued Seattle Broadcast (RLR Records, 2011). See the Jim Wilke page for information on more recent releases from the 1960s material. The Penthouse closed in 1968; the building was demolished shortly thereafter, replaced by a multi-story parking lot.Seattle music historian Paul de Barros described The Penthouse, along with Pete's Poop Deck and Dave's Fifth Avenue as one of Seattle's "first true modern jazz clubs".

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article The Penthouse (Seattle) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

The Penthouse (Seattle)
Post Avenue, Seattle International District/Chinatown

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N 47.602723 ° E -122.334786 °
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1st and Columbia Parking Garage

Post Avenue
98174 Seattle, International District/Chinatown
Washington, United States
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Seattle First Avenue looking north from James Street 1916
Seattle First Avenue looking north from James Street 1916
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Mutual Life Building (Seattle)
Mutual Life Building (Seattle)

The Mutual Life Building, originally known as the Yesler Building, is an historic office building located in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood that anchors the West side of the square. The building sits on one of the most historic sites in the city; the original location of Henry Yesler's cookhouse that served his sawmill in the early 1850s and was one of Seattle's first community gathering spaces. It was also the site of the first sermon delivered and first lawsuit tried in King County. By the late 1880s Yesler had replaced the old shanties with several substantial brick buildings including the grand Yesler-Leary Building, which would all be destroyed by the Great Seattle Fire in 1889. The realignment of First Avenue to reconcile Seattle's clashing street grids immediately after the fire would split Yesler's corner into two pieces; the severed eastern corner would become part of Pioneer Square park, and on the western lot Yesler would begin construction of his eponymous block in 1890 to house the First National Bank, which had previously been located in the Yesler-Leary Building. Portland brewer Louis Feurer began construction of a conjoined building to the west of Yesler's at the same time. Progress of both would be stunted and the original plans of architect Elmer H. Fisher were dropped by the time construction resumed in 1892. It would take 4 phases and 4 different architects before the building reached its final form in 1905. The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York only owned the building for 13 years (from 1896 to 1909), but it would retain their name even after the company moved out in 1916. Though well maintained as an office building into the 1940s under the ownership of the Shafer Brothers, by the 1950s the building was largely vacant and deteriorating, becoming a poster child of the blight facing the Pioneer Square neighborhood and in the early 1960s was recognized as one of the most historically significant buildings on the square. The building became the birthplace of Seattle's historic preservation movement and the first headquarters for Historic Seattle. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 as a contributing property in the Pioneer Square Historic District but was not fully restored until the early 1980s, which returned its use to office space.

Colman Building
Colman Building

The Colman Building is a historic office building on First Avenue in downtown Seattle, Washington. It occupies a half of a block in proximity to Pioneer Square, and is bound by First Avenue, Marion, and Columbia Streets. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a City of Seattle landmark. The building was built in several stages with a change of design between 1889 and 1906. It was commissioned by Scottish immigrant and master machinist James Murray Colman who arrived in Seattle in 1872 and would later build Seattle's first brick office building (1875) and Colman Dock which originally was the city's main coal shipping point. Colman owned large tracts of lands along Seattle's waterfront and was instrumental in bringing the first railroad (Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad) to the city as well as helping start the city's first street car line. Architect Stephen J. Meany drew the original plans in a Victorian style while the reconstruction that is visible today was the work of August Tidemand, inspired by the Chicago School with less ornamentation and large pivoting windows. The architectural cast-iron elements from the original design remain on the first floor, while the second floor was re-faced rusticated stone. Four floors of red brick trimmed with marble were built on top of this. The building is crowned with a copper cornice. The Colman building was one of the largest office buildings in Seattle in the 1900s and was the centerpiece of Colman's multi-million dollar estate at the time of his death in 1906 shortly after its completion.