Rizal Hall
605½ S. King Street
In the 1920s and ’30s, this block of South King Street between Sixth Avenue South and Maynard Avenue South teemed with Filipino cafés, social clubs and labor contract offices, which led one journalist visiting from the Philippines to describe it as Seattle’s own “Filipino barrio.” Many of the buildings that housed this activity have long since been torn down, including the one where Rizal Hall was, upstairs, at what used to be 605½ S. King St. (now 601). Rizal Hall was a particularly lively spot, where jazz bands and community orchestras performed for dancing and listening. Like the bridge that links the Chinatown-International District to Beacon Hill, it was named for Filipino patriot Jose Rizal, whose name also adorned the Rizal Lodge, another Filipino social club torn down in the 1970s to make way for the I-5 freeway.
The entrance to Rizal Hall was under the awning to the left, up South King Street. The name is just visible on the awning. Note the sign
on the corner for the Manila Café.
(Source: Washington State Archives, Puget Sound Regional Branch)
![Rizal Hall hi res 524780-1875,_hotel,_1937[1] cropped.tif](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b4878d_1c63fb903a844c0195bff301bd83e6cd~mv2.png/v1/crop/x_0,y_10,w_1400,h_1049/fill/w_526,h_389,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Rizal%20Hall%20hi%20res%20524780-1875%2C_hotel%2C_1937%5B1%5D%20cropped_tif.png)
Dee Dee Hackett, singing at the Rizal. Note the bandstand with the partially obscured name of the club. (Museum of History & Industry, Al Smith Collection, 2014.49.071-075-01)
Founded by Demetrio Ente, Rizal Hall first operated in 1933 as a taxi dance establishment, where working men could pay for a dance with female employees. The Moonlight Serenaders, a Filipino band featuring saxophonist Eusebio Francisco Osias, played here often. Ente moved the club to Stockton, California, in 1937, but on December 22, 1943, just in time for the Christmas season, the Rizal had a grand reopening in Seattle, thanks to new owner Charlie Beale, who featured popular Black jazz musicians such as pianist Al Pierre, saxophonist Tootie Boyd, trumpeter Bob Russell, dancer Tickle Toed Sonny Boy, and the popular vocalists Russell Jones, Dee Dee Hackett and Gloria Lawrence. In 1945, Boyd led a group here called Tootie Boyd’s Rizal Club Band, which suggests that the club was open at least through the end of the war.
Today, at 601 S. King St., there’s a modern redbrick building with a grocery, travel agency and the offices of the Interim Community Development Association, which works for social justice and equity in the neighborhood. An informative kiosk across Sixth Avenue South outlines of some of the area’s rich Filipino history.
The Rizal Club
site, 2024.