The Green Dot

Barbershops have always served as informal gathering places for the Black community, so it’s no surprise that when the Green Dot opened, Seattle’s Black newspaper, The Northwest Enterprise, noted that travelers and “railroad men will find the Green Dot an ideal place to spend their leisure time in Seattle.” Though a Washington Federal Bank and its parking lot now occupy this corner, in 1909 the Rainier Heat & Power Company built the Welcome Hotel here, future home of the Green Dot, a spiffy bright-green tonsorial establishment with a secret night club in back. Sherman Spates and Ray Chavis opened the Green Dot in 1933, and by the following year they were advertising “card rooms” and “recreation rooms.” Pianist Palmer Johnson (1907-1996), who played solo piano at the Green Dot in 1941, recalled that the place was too small for jam sessions, which perhaps explains its minimalist name. It also doubled as a “bookie joint” (for betting on horse races), where trumpeter Herman Grimes worked in the daytime “and gambled all his money away,” according to Johnson. The Green Dot lasted until at least 1947, when its last ads appeared in The Northwest Enterprise.