Basin Street

"One of the top nightclubs in the District, Basin Street, opened in 1940 when Davey Lee, a local businessman, won a stake playing the Chinese lottery. At 17, local jazz great Ernestine Anderson began her professional career at the club singing with the Ernie Lewis band. The club was on Maynard Avenue, off Jackson Street, in a basement that extended from the Bush Hotel to an area underneath what is now Hing Hay Park. It held about 200 patrons and had some 20 full-time waiters and five bartenders." - Seattle's International District, Doug Chin