From the 1920s to the 1960s, Seattle had a thriving nightclub district centered at 12th Avenue and Jackson Street. The king of the after-hours clubs was E. Russell “Noodles” Smith, who owned about a dozen, The Black and Tan club being perhaps the best known. Smiths main competitor was John “Doc” Hamilton, who owned several clubs.

The interesting point as illustrated by Professor Quintard Taylor, Jr.’s fascinating research into the history of blacks in the American West, is that the majority of these clubs and speakeasies were rooms rented out of Chinese owned buildings in Seattle’s very own “Chinatown.” Professor Taylor goes on to say that at that time (circa 1930s) Black-Chinese cooperation, at least in terms of music and entertainment, in Seattle was at an all time high and lead to many black jazz musicians eventually going on to perform in Shanghai which in turn seeded and developed the Shanghai jazz scene.

12th and Jackson