Tag Archives: central district

Closure in the Central District: Jackson’s Catfish Corner

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(Image: Jackson’s Catfish Corner)

40 years of the family business came to an end in the Central District last week with a final 50 pounds of catfish as Terrell Jackson and Jackson’s Catfish Corner called it quits.

“My grandparents started this business in January 1985. This is now 40 years of business. 40 years of business and I just cannot do it anymore,” Jackson said in a heartfelt video posted to the 23rd and Jackson restaurant owner’s social media last Friday. “I don’t have the team, the structure, I don’t have nothing right now. Just doing shit on my own is very hard and I don’t, I think I just think I did all I can do in Seattle, you know what I’m saying?”

In the announcement, Jackson invited regulars by for a last po boy or two at the joint he opened at the corner in 2021 after years of pop-ups and smaller projects carrying on his family’s Catfish Corner legacy, saying he had about 50 pounds of catfish left, 20 or so burgers, and some oysters and calamari.

The final ingredients really were about all Jackson had left to give.

“I don’t want this to be a sad time or heartbreak time or ‘what are you gonna do next’ time. It’s that I did all I can time. I did all I can,” Jackson said, saying he was “maxed out” and ready to look for new opportunities.

The walls of Jackson’s Catfish Corner were a testament to its popularity, covered up and down in signatures of customers.

In an interview with Converge Media, Jackson said the Central District’s changes and the costs of doing business in Seattle caught up with him, citing the jump in the minimum wage and lower than expected foot traffic due to the neighborhood’s changing demographics. Continue reading →

Seattle Black Firefighters fight to protect historic Central District property from controversial sale

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A fight is underway in the Central District to save a home that a group of Black first responders say has long been a cornerstone in their community.

Members of the Seattle Black Firefighters Association are locked in a legal battle to reclaim the property, which was sold last year under controversial circumstances. Saturday, a community rally was held at 23rd and Pike to show support for saving the property.

“It’s just really very disappointing that we cannot, as Black men and women, sit down and talk about the property, and the only solution that the current regime has come up with is to sell it,” said retired Deputy Chief Charles Gill of the Seattle Fire Department. Gill, alongside other retired and active members, has been leading the charge to preserve the house, which has been central to the group’s identity for over four decades.

The house’s sale has ignited outrage not just because of its history but also due to what some say was a lack of transparency and a disregard for the organization’s bylaws. A court ruling in 2024 affirmed that retired members of the SBFFA retain voting rights, yet the sale went ahead anyway. The double-lot property, located in one of Seattle’s most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, was sold for $680,000 — far below its market value, the group says.

The corner marks the latest fight in what is becoming sometimes a house by house effort to hold onto remaining roots of the Central District. Continue reading →

City backs off landmarks nomination for former Phillis Wheatley YWCA site, ‘a central hub’ in Seattle’s Black history

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The building as it looks today

If 21st Ave’s old Phillis Wheatley YWCA is going to become a protected landmark in recognition of its place in the history of Black Seattle, someone else is going to need to speak up for the property set for demolition to make way for a new housing development.

The City of Seattle quietly withdrew its request to nominate the 108-year-old house for landmarks protections earlier this month ending a rare City Hall-backed foray to win protections for a property.

Edward Lee, director of communications for the Department of Neighborhoods, told CHS only that the application had been “formally withdrawn” and did not provide reasons for the reversal. The property most recently used as transitional housing but lined up to be demolished and redeveloped as a new 49-unit apartment building was scheduled for a hearing on the possible protections earlier this month.

The city had said the 21st Ave property just off E Madison was worthy of landmarks status as “a pivotal location in Seattle’s African American heritage.” It is unusual for the city to pursue landmarks nominations, a process it typically leaves to community groups, developers, or property owners. Continue reading →

Garfield Super Block meeting will discuss planned parkour park, a first in Seattle

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(Image: Parkour Visions)

Sunday evening will bring “a conversation on intergenerational play” in a community meeting about a parkour park planned to be part of the Garfield Super Block project.

The December 8th, 6 PM session at the Central District’s nearby Metier Brewing will include a panel discussion including parkour practitioners, coaches, and community representatives about the “history of the practice and its importance in Seattle.”

The parkour park element would be the first in the city. Continue reading →

The Phillis Wheatley YWCA — How city’s effort to protect ‘a central hub’ in Seattle’s Black history could block affordable housing project

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The building as it looks today

By Ayla Nye/UW News Lab

With an affordable housing project set to demolish the building, a December landmarks board hearing could determine the future of a 21st Ave property the city calls “a pivotal location in Seattle’s African American heritage.”

The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections has taken the unusual step of delaying the development of a 49-unit apartment building just off E Madison to determine if the 108-year-old building should be protected on the grounds that the property holds historical and cultural significance, according to the SDCI.

The Madison Inn Work Release, formerly known as the Phillis Wheatley YWCA building, is up for a landmark nomination, a designation that could protect the building from demolition and many types of construction.

Stephanie Johnson-Toliver, president of the Black Heritage Society of Washington State, voiced her concern about the planned building demolition.

Johnson-Toliver is a fourth generation Seattleite. Her family moved to Seattle in 1913 and she has owned her house in the Central District for nearly 30 years. In 1945, her mother was a member of the Phillis Wheatley YWCA Girls Reserve.

“The Phillis Wheatley was created to meet the needs of Black women and children,” Johnson-Toliver said. “They helped shape young women’s opinions and attitudes and we’re socially uplifting them with education and recreation,” she said.

“Established from the ‘Culture Club’ in 1919, this site has been a central hub for black intellectual life, community gathering, black social justice and legal defense groups,” the nomination prepared for the city reads. “It initially functioned as a meeting point and community center, significantly contributing to the social fabric of Seattle’s African American community.”

Ben Maritz is the current owner of the Madison Inn property and the founder of Great Expectations, an affordable housing developer. Maritz has been developing the property since he bought it in July of 2020.

“We went through a whole process, including design review, and received the master use permit, I think, over a year ago,” Maritz said. Continue reading →

Fundraiser underway to support family of 15-year-old victim in deadly Central District shooting

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A fundraiser is underway to assist the family of the teenager shot and killed last week at 27th and Spring.

15-year-old Soloman Taylor died at the scene of the Monday night, October 28th shooting. The Seattle Police Departments says Taylor was gunned down in the street and are asking the public for help in the case. Police were looking for a vehicle reported leaving the scene but have announced no arrests. Continue reading →

Teen victim in deadly 27th and Spring shooting identified

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The teen victim in Monday night’s deadly shooting in the Central District has been identified by authorities.

The King County Medical Examiner says Soloman Taylor died of a gunshot wound to the torso. He was 15. Continue reading →

911 | Teen shot and killed on 27th Ave, 20th/Yesler building fire investigated

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See something others should know about? Email CHS or call/txt/Signal (206) 399-5959. You can view recent CHS 911 coverage here. Hear sirens and wondering what’s going on? Check out Twitter reports from @jseattle or join and check in with neighbors in the CHS Facebook Group.

  • Monday night shooting: One person was shot and killed in the street and Seattle Police were searching for a car reported speeding from the scene in a Monday night shooting in the Central District near 27th and Spring. Multiple 911 callers reported shots fired and a person down in the area around 7:45 PM. Police arrived and found the victim suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Officers began CPR as Seattle Fire was dispatched to respond. Police say the male teenage victim died at the scene. There were no reported arrests.

  • 20th/Yesler fire: Investigators are examining a Monday night incident at 20th and Yesler after Seattle Fire was able to knock down a blaze on the exterior of the building before it seriously damaged ground floor businesses. Seattle Fire was called to the 100-block 20th Ave mixed-use building just before 7 PM and found a fire burning on the outside of the structure. Responding crews were able to extinguish the blaze before it spread inside street-level businesses including Broadcast Coffee. The Seattle Fire Marshal is investigating.
 

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‘Proof and power’ — Africatown Plaza affordable development now open in the Central District

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(Image: CHS)

(Image: CH)S

Africatown Plaza, a new $66.5 million 126-unit affordable apartment building on the 23rd and Union Midtown block, opened to residents this month after two years of construction that included an unprecedented number of Black families who worked on the project, its developers say.

Community Roots Housing and the Africatown Community Land Trust say Africatown Plaza is a standing symbol of what can be achieved through advocacy, unity and perseverance.

“When I thought about what this day and what this project represents, what really came to me was proof and power,” K. Wyking Garrett, president and CEO of ACLT, said at the building’s opening ceremony earlier this month. “We see the proof of the true power that exists within us, and among us to imagine, design and build solutions for the problems that we face.” Continue reading →

Police recover bullet from Nova classroom, no injuries reported in second shooting in two days near Garfield High School

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Seattle Police recovered a bullet from inside E Cherry’s Nova High School and Nova and nearby Garfield were placed in lockdown and students were sheltering in place after another round of afternoon gunfire in the area.

For the second day in a row, police were investigating a shooting near the Garfield High School campus after Wednesday’s incident reportedly involving shots fired from a vehicle left no reported injuries south of the school’s Central District campus.

Thursday, police were called to the area near E Cherry and 25th after gunfire was reported in the area around 1:40 PM. SPD reported a bullet was found inside a Nova classroom. There were no reported injuries. Police found multiple shell casings near 25th and Cherry where a witness reported the shooter was in a blue Honda last seen speeding from the scene.

Nova students were released early. Garfiel’s shelter in place status was lifted shortly after 2 PM

Police reported no immediate arrests.

The shots fired incidents come weeks after Seattle officials led by Mayor Bruce Harrell announced a $14.5 million plan focused on intervention, mental health, and increased use of “school-based safety specialist” private security guards following the deadly lunchtime shooting of teen Amarr Murphy-Paine last June in the Garfield campus parking lot.

 

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