Seattle's Chinatown-International District makes national list of endangered historic places

SEATTLE - The National Trust for Historic Preservation says Seattle’s Chinatown International District (CID) is in danger of disappearing as a unique community-- so much so that it has been placed on this year's most endangered historic places.  

The Chinatown International District was drained by the Japanese internment camps of World War II and then split by the construction of I-5. 

Now, it's threatened by the location of a future Sound Transit rail station, which could cripple commerce and the community with years of construction and traffic.

"The Chinatown International District is an incredibly important place. Not just here in Seattle, but as a part of our larger American story," said Katherine Malone-France, the chief preservation officer of the National Trust Historic Preservation. "It is under tremendous pressure and threat from development."

Huy Pham with the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation says the neighborhood’s heritage as a piece of history and a vibrant part of today’s Seattle is both a benefit and a vulnerability. 

"Communities want transit and want access to this beautiful, amazing, historic and cultural place, but there’s a delicate way to do it that maintains the community members that have lived and moved through here for the past century," said Pham. 

The CID is unique among Chinatowns nationwide for how diverse it is: National Trust for Historic Preservation says it’s the only community to be settled by Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, African American, and Vietnamese people.

Co-founder of Transit Equity For All, Betty Lau, says the community wants to work with city and civic leaders to balance the priorities of preservation and access.

"Are we going to have the resources and the help that other neighborhoods get? And so far, the answer has been very negligible," she said. "And that is why the Chinatowns of the nation our disappearing." 

The CID is the first place in Washington to make the most endangered list, and it highlights the overall decline of the 83 historic Chinatowns nationwide. The National Trust for Historic Preservation says fewer than half of these special neighborhoods remain intact.