Location Seattle, Washington Architect Thompson & Thompson Opened 1909 | Built 1909 NRHP Reference # 78002754 Added to NRHP 22 May 1978 | |
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Address 628 S Washington St, Seattle, WA 98104, USA Similar Northgate Transit Center, Kobe Terrace, Norton Building, Wells Fargo Center, Arctic Building | ||
The Nippon Kan Theatre (日本館劇場, Nippon-kan Gekijō) is a former Japanese theater in Seattle, Washington, United States. Built in 1909 as a hotel, it was boarded up in 1942 during the Japanese American internment, but reopened in 1981 through the restorative efforts of Seattle architect Edward M. Burke and his wife Betty. It is located in the Kobe Park Building at 628 S. Washington Street, in the former Japantown section of Seattle's International District. In 2005 it was sold to ABC Legal Services and was used as converted office space. A replica of the curtain hangs on the wall along with several historic photographs. Its original closure has been attributed to the decreasing number of people of Japanese descent in Seattle.
The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The theater's original stage curtain (used 1909–1915) survives, and now serves a similar purpose on the stage of the Tateuchi Story Theater of the nearby Wing Luke Museum. The curtain covered with advertisements was rediscovered in the 1970s. Because it used an asbestos material, it is now encased in a resin.