The Dumas Club
209 Fifth Avenue South
Black people were not welcome in downtown establishments such as the Rainier Club, so forward-thinking members of the Black community formed social clubs of their own. Only a parking lot remains at this historic site, but on February 22, 1912, entrepreneur Russell “Noodles” Smith and his partner, Burr “Blackie” Williams, opened Seattle’s first Black social club here. They announced the grand opening of the Dumas Club with a snazzy flyer promising entertainment by the Creole and Whang Doodle Orchestras. The Whang Doodle Orchestra, which would later hire Seattle’s pioneering Black trumpeter and music teacher, Frank Waldron, performed ragtime-inflected dance music that was a precursor to jazz. As such, the Dumas Club is the first documented site of jazzlike music being played by local musicians in Seattle.
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Invitation to the opening of the Dumas Club. (Black Heritage Society of Washington State, Dumas Club Invitation)
The Dumas Club was reached through the door to the right of the PRINTING sign. The address is just visible over the door. The building has since been demolished. (Source: Washington State Archives, Puget Sound Regional Branch)
![Dumas Club 982070-0015,_stores,_1937[1].tif](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b4878d_338419d2076e48598f53c265c71cead0~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_532,h_399,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Dumas%20Club%20982070-0015%2C_stores%2C_1937%5B1%5D_tif.png)
Smith arrived in Seattle in 1909, just in time for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. He claimed that he’d won his stake for the Dumas Club — and later business ventures, including the Golden West Hotel, Coast Hotel and the Black and Tan — gambling in Nevada’s silver mining towns. Whether the story was true or not, Smith was most certainly a risk-taker. An intrepid entrepreneur, he went on to become the dominant nightlife operator in the district, running a string of clubs and hotels catering to Black folks.
The Whang Doodle Orchestra, 1925: [first name unknown] Hughes, mandolin; Ace Brooks (seated), mandolin; unknown; Frank Waldron, trumpet; Coty Jones, piano. (Black Heritage Society of Washington State, 2001.14.2.15A)
Site of the Dumas Club, 2024.