black elks club, seattle
Back then, Ballard overflowed with Scandinavians, Norwegians in particular; according to lore, local law required a church for every bar, which resulted in a profusion of both. But Im not a transplant! he says. I heard about the club through Rob Casey, because he surfs my tugboat wake.. As late as the 1970s, the lodge was where you went to dance on a Saturday night, to dress up on New Years, to play bridge and hobnob and drink under the auspices of charity. The invitation to the Portland Elks initiation, 1908. Privacy Statement . As the new members introduced themselves, a group of 20-plus Elks paddleboarders were grouped around a large table in the other room, putting the final touches on a plan that will allow them to store their boards in the lodges basement. Discover unique things to do, places to eat, and sights to see in the best destinations around the world with Bring Me! [15] Taylor, 147. Phone: 206-784-0827 The phone is only answered during office hours. While there, he made good money, but Seattle band leader Earl Whaley convinced Johnson to quit the Portland scene and join a band he was taking to Shanghai, China. Anyone whos lived long in Ballard has attended a memorial, a wedding, or a party in the ground-floor ballroom, the rental of which is contracted to an outside catering company. Come down and visit us on the shores of Shilshole Bay. Here are just a few: In 1907, the Seattle Republican reported on the Order of Elks, writing that "it is claimed by members and officers that it is one of the most thriving secret societies among Afro-Americans of this city." Brooks was impressed by the stream of successful African-American professionals the lodge brought in for chats, and membership was robust through the early 2000s. If the 1910s and 1920s firmly ensconced jazz in Seattles nightlife, the Depression era showcased the unique power of jazz music to bring people of all races and classes together. From the front, it's not entirely clear that it's open. Using the app to sign up and working your shift enters you in a 2x month drawing for a $50 Social Quarters gift certificate! The lodges median age, 52, is the lowest in the country and a figure that, if current trends hold, will only continue to fall. No blacks were in the school books. These new groups forged their own path in the face of racism, and established vital gathering spaces for Blacks seeking basic services and a safe social outlet as the civil-rights movement took flight. [24] Ibid., 47-49. Thanks to all who got a copy of the first b Dr. James Gore interviews me for 60 minutes on KKNW. Thank you! A few years later, in 1920, Smith and Jimmy Woodland open the Entertainers Club at 12th and Jackson. Heres how one Seattle neighborhood has made the Elks, and the community it provides, cool again. Women werent even allowed to put a toe in that place., There are pictures of a younger Lois in the back of the club, the same firecracker look in her eye as she has today. Daniel Curry spends his days on horseback studying wolves migration patterns and deterring them from encroaching on the human landscape. One member couldnt believe that I was older than his father. He laughs, slaps the table. The Lodge recently purchased the building that was formerly known as Ponti Seafood restaurant, a stunning location on the Ship Canal near the Fremont Bridge. In many ways, the lodges are ciphers: event spaces malleable to the shifting civic and psychological needs of their members, instead of dictating them. With this in mind, Smith opened the Ubangi club sometime after 1935 and according to Paul de Barros, it was one of the Jackson Street districts most successful and glamorous black-owned nightclubs.[28] The Ubangi had exquisite African themed dcor, complete with potted palms, and it boasted two large stages, one on each of its floors. The Grand Exalted Ruler of an Elks lodge can hold office for only a single year; as a result, there are no ruling dynasties, and young and new members arent just encouraged to take control, but also essential to yearly operations. [3] Quintard Taylor, The Forging of a Black Community: Seattles Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994), 34-35. Jackson Street nightclubs like the Green Dot, the Black and Tan, and the Blue Rose (soon to be renamed the Rocking Chair) continued to operate into the 1940s and 1950s and Jackson Street remained the heart of Seattles jazz scene. But the mother of two is a regular fixture at the lodge, which she joined about four years ago, so that my kids would have somewhere to pee when we were at the beach. That beach, right on the Puget Sound and the bar that extends above it is how the vast majority of the new members at the Ballard Elks found out about the lodge, which is one of the fastest-growing in America, mushrooming from around 800 members in 2012 to over 1,200 today. Each of those lodges has a story of where that growth is coming from, yet the impulse remains constant: seeking connections, with people who are not necessarily like them, in dusty old buildings with $2 drafts and animal heads hanging over the doorway. Franklin D. Roosevelt was an Elk; so were Truman and MacArthur and Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. Black Elks Club. One proposal involves replacing the waterscape dinosaur sculptures and all with a meadow of native plants. Its like home, in a time when that notion is very much in flux. 1416 seen adjacent to the Rainier Beach Light Rail Station at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Way South and South Henderson Street in Seattle's Rainier Beach neighborhood, Feb. 23, 2019. All cities are a collection of neighborhoods, but Seattles location hedged in and bisected by water makes it more so than most. Since then, the IBPOEW and its women's organization, the Daughters of the IBPOEW, have continued to work for the African American community. Casey, who has the freckles and eye crinkles of someone who lives on the water, was one of the first to start stand-up paddling in Seattle. A barber shop by day and a jazz parlor by night, the Green Dot took advantage of advertising space in the Northwest Enterprise to get the word out during the New Deal boom in jazzs popularity. It directly impacts their communities, and they can feel and touch it.. [31] Ad for The Green Dot, Northwest Enterprise, 11 January, 1934, p.4. The boys left Seattle in July and reached Shanghai in September where they have been a big hit at St. Anans [sic] Cabaret, largest pleasure resort in the Chinese cityMr. During the Great Depression, there was no time to reminisce about the excess of the Roaring Twentiesit was a time to look forward. She told me this day is a dream come true for her. A week after new member orientation, its initiation night, and the steaks, served to every new member, are on the grill. With the Elks, its all about transparency, Rick Gathen, a representative from Elks National, told me. In the early 21st century, it has 500,000 members and 1500 lodges . Seattles jazz scene weathered the Depression well and managed to maintain the vibrant musical scene that had developed in the area in the decades before the economic crash. The more robust the Facebook page, the rule seems to go, the healthier the IRL lodge. Matt McKnight is formerly a visual journalist at Crosscut, where he covered a variety of political, social and environmental issues around the Pacific Northwest. By their very name, secret societies inspire curiosity, fascination and distrust. Download and print this Membership Application or find an application form in the Lounge during business hours. First, Seattle had a very small Black population, with about 3,500 Black residents out of about 366,000 in total. In the climate of Roosevelts New Deal, Jackson Street jazz clubs began catering to more class-specific audiences. Back then, a self-professed old school member of the Ballard Elks complained about the eager-beaver women agitating for membership: When theyre twisting your arm, he told the Seattle Times, Im sure its going to pass.. Organizations like the Elks span age groups, political orientations, sexual identities, classes, and, increasingly, race; in so doing, they foment bridging social capital that is, connections with people who are not necessarily like you. [5] Though Seattles jazz scene was still in its infancy, the citys lenience toward illicit clubs allowed them to grow into what would become the future home for jazz on Jackson Street. Monday Saturday 3:00 PM to Close /Sunday: 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM. With other organizations, a lot of dollars go to jets and national salaries; with us, people know where the moneys going. As a musical style and as a social movement, jazz embodied this forward looking spirit. The bartender pulls a bag of popcorn from the microwave and pours it into a bowl for everyone at the bar to share. I kept coming here with dudes, but finally I said, You know what, screw the dudes, Im gonna join. Your application will be read at a regular Lodge meeting. Thank you to Paul DeBarros and his book Jackson Street After Hours Panama Hotel trumpet, guitar, piano Welcome to the Panama Hotel Tea Room. The dream of Seattle had been colonized by a bunch of rich dorks in performance gear who didnt even know how to flirt. You can watch dozens of versions of it on YouTube, in various degrees of formality and intoxication, the words sticky in throats and scratchy on old gramophones. But what is most interesting is the explicit criticism of the American white man as ill-mannered and crazy. Few (if any) Blacks during the Great Depression supported racial segregation, but it was the law. The Order of the Sons of St. George, another secret organization, which was founded in 1871to oppose the Maguiresalso appears to have vanished. &q 4Culture awarded a grant to extend performances of Panama Hotel Jazz. We welcome your "cyber" visit and hope you may find time in your travels to visit us in person! Our meetings are on the 2nd & 4th Thursdays, except the Months that we have one meeting (July & August, on the 4th Thursday only) and (November & December on the 2nd Thursday only). The Grand Orange Lodge, with its secret signs and pass-words, has been plotting with his Excellency during the whole of that period. The Ballard Elks Lodge #827 sits on the shores of Shilshole Bay in Seattle overlooking beautiful Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains. Jake has the round Norwegian face you see all over Ballard, and he first joined the Elks a lifetime ago. When he moved to Alaska, he became an Elk in Bad Standing, but when he started attending bingo with John, he paid a simple $25 fee and returned to the fold. ), In many ways, Lois is the go-to historian for the Elks: Shes been attending functions since the 1960s, when they were in their old building, and joined the Emblem Club, a still-vibrant auxiliary organization for spouses of Elks members that developed during World War I. Lois describes the lodge in the 60s as kind of weird. The women couldnt come in the bar, which was up on the second floor, she says. While police raids were a constant annoyance, they rarely had lasting negative effects on popular clubs like the Black and Tan. [12] Carlos Bulosan, America is in the Heart, (USA: Originally published by Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1943; reprinted by the University of Washington Press, 1973), 99-100. The Seattle Elks Lodge has a rich history of fellowship and service to the Seattle community. "We're the fastest-growing and youngest lodge in the nation. Seattles Black population numbered only 406 in 1900, but the following decades saw a sharp increase in Black migration. Jazz musicians and clubs came and wentPalmer Johnson went all the way to China while the Ubangi club just went underbut Jackson Street remained the heart of Seattle jazz for many years after the Great Depression. One of those leaders, Liz King, pops into the bar and gives Zuniga a hug. In the end, Jackson Street should be remembered not only for its jazz music, but also for its ability to bring diverse peoples together. [7] Ibid., 12-17. B. F. Howard took over the running of the organization after Riggs went into hiding. Brooks' first exposure to the Cascade lodge was as a DJ. Follow the Great Depression Project/ Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project on Facebook, Seattle's jazz culture flourished in the 1920s and 1930s, particularly in the multiracial neighborhood culture of Jackson Street in Seattle's Central District. To promote charity, justice, brotherly love, and fidelity. And they said no way just dont cuss in front of the girls, and dont drink before the meetings.. 2,000 years of extraordinary achievement Considering the location, I thought the price was, Audrea H. said: Great room for a great price. Monday: 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. The raid marked the fourth on the popular pleasure resort for 1934E. 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