Seattle’s Gay History is Revealed in a Walking Tour

How much do you know about the city you live in? Sure, you know the best place to get brunch and the mayor’s first name, but what about the history of the region? Seattle’s MOHAI, the Museum of History and Industry, does historical walking tours. And in conjunction with their current Revealing Queer exhibit, they’re leading two different walking tours focusing on Seattle’s gay history.

I met MOHAI’s Kimberly Jacobsen, who will be leading a tour this Saturday, at Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park. I know Cal Anderson as the place where stylish hipsters go to sun themselves on summer days. I did not know where the park got its name. It was called Lincoln Park until it got a major freshening up.

“Senator Cal Anderson had just passed away from the AIDS crisis. So they really felt that it was a good memorial to him to name this park after him. Our first gay legislator, Cal Anderson. He was certainly very important to the gay rights movement here in Seattle,” says Jacobsen.

This weekend’s tour takes place on Capitol Hill, the neighborhood most would describe as the city’s crux of gay culture. But it was in Pioneer Square where the first gay bars sprouted up in the 1930’s.

“The Pioneer Square folks would drink and dance and a lot of the first gay bars were located down that way. They included The 611 and the 614 Taverns and The Double Header which actually still exists down there today,” says Jacobsen.

The Double Header opened in 1934 and is possibly the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the United States. At a time when a person could be fired or booted from an apartment because of their sexuality, Kimberly explains how the gay bars were able to stay open.

“They kind of made that continue to happen through a series of police payoffs. That is kind of what eventually caused it’s downfall as the payoff system got too much for the owners to continue. So the police corruption was exposed but unfortunately it also exposed those bars to a lot of criticism.”

Seattle’s first gay pride parade started in Pioneer Square in 1973.

“It was more of a march than a celebration. A march for our right. A march to both be recognized and to be brave as a community and kind of stand out together and with allies as well.”

Moving out of Cal Anderson Park, and into the year 1980, Kimberly took me to a bustling Broadway intersection.

“So right now we’re looking at the intersection of where the first pride in Capitol Hill began. Right at the corner of Howell and Broadway.”

Seattle has the second largest gay population in the country, next to San Francisco, so I asked Kimberly why Seattle has always been a welcoming place for queer culture.

“Seattleites have more of an understanding of privacy. You know that old kind of Seattle Freeze saying where people will be really pleasant to your face but maybe not give you a call the day after they meet you? I think that was actually to queer people’s advantage, to some degree. There was a sense of, whatever you do, that’s on your own time.”

Kimberly’s tour ends at the Wild Rose, Seattle’s, and possibly the state’s, only lesbian bar. The tour includes lots of history about the social scene, politics and local movers and shakers from the 1930’s through today. Far more detail than I can fit into this article, so you’ll have to experience a tour for yourself.

Click here for information on upcoming walking tours.