Eight Decades of Music, From Jazz to Grunge
Since opening in 1939, this stage has carried a remarkable range of sound. Picture touring legends like Duke Ellington, Muddy Waters and the Ramones playing the same room you can stand in today.
Local talent runs just as deep through the story. Burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee performed here, and so did a run of grunge bands that came to define Seattle's sound:
- Soundgarden
- Pearl Jam
- Mudhoney
- TAD
- Screaming Trees
Comedy Club Days and the 1995 Revival
For many years the space ran as the Improv Comedy Club. Restaurateur Tony Riviera and Barry Bloch bought it intending to keep the Improv going, until they turned up old photographs, articles and records of the original Showbox.
That find changed everything. The pair restored the room to its earlier look and threw open the doors on New Year's Eve, 1995, as The Showbox Comedy and Supper Club, running it for several years before selling.
How Fans Saved a City Landmark
In July 2018, the Vancouver-based developer Onni Group announced plans to replace the property with a 42-story apartment tower. Seattle's music community answered loudly and quickly.
Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Death Cab for Cutie, Macklemore and Duff McKagan all spoke up for the building, while an online petition urging the city to protect it gathered more than 110,000 signatures.
The 2019 Landmark Vote
In June 2019, Historic Seattle, Friends of Historic Belltown and Vanishing Seattle filed a landmark nomination with the City of Seattle's Landmarks Preservation Board. The board voted unanimously on July 17, 2019, to designate the Showbox, which blocked its demolition.
The property owner then sued the city. The court dismissed the damage claims, while other claims were set for trial. In November 2019, Historic Seattle announced it had joined Seattle Theatre Group on a formal offer to buy the building, with AEG staying on as operator through at least 2024.
The Showbox SoDo, the Bigger Sibling
For a larger room in the same Showbox Presents family, head to the Showbox SoDo at 1700 1st Avenue South. It sits a few blocks south of T-Mobile Park and Lumen Field and opened in September 2007.
The building started life in 1935 as a truck warehouse, with a dirt floor and a gas pump in its main section. Before the Showbox moved in, it housed the Premier nightclub and later the Fenix Underground, both of which closed within a few years. Step inside today and you will find a room of wood beams and brick.
Holding 1,800 people, SoDo outsizes the original, which is exactly why the 1st Avenue ballroom picked up the Showbox at the Market name. Its stage has welcomed My Bloody Valentine, Heart, The Pogues, M.I.A. and Counting Crows.
An Arena Plan in the Background
The SoDo land belongs to a holding company formed by Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer, who bought it in August 2012 as part of a push for a new NBA arena. The city later backed a different plan at Seattle Center, now Climate Pledge Arena. Hansen keeps the SoDo parcel as a possible fallback, and the Showbox SoDo keeps the shows coming.
Landmarks a Short Stroll Away
The Showbox is ringed by other designated landmarks, so pair your show with a walk along 1st Avenue. Within about a tenth of a mile, you can take in:
- Hotel Elliott / Hahn Building
- Eitel Building
- 84 Union Building / U.S. Immigration Building
- Mann Building
- Colonnade Hotel / Gatewood Apartments
- J.S. Graham Store / Doyle Building
- Fischer Studio Building
- Olympic Tower
Ready for more? Browse the full list of Seattle landmarks and plan your next stop.
