For generations, Belltown has been a home for workers, artists, service industry folks, musicians, and wanderers—people just starting out or starting over. It was the quieter, cheaper, funkier corner of Downtown—a place where regular people could find a room, a job, a drink, and a sense of belonging. This mix of characters, spaces, and struggles shaped the neighborhood’s energy and culture.
Today, Belltown is under pressure. High-rise development, luxury hotels, and a flood of short-term rentals are pushing out long-time residents. Cruise tourism brings crowds but rarely connection. Local businesses that once gave the streets life are closing as commercial rents skyrocket. Murals are painted in the name of “revitalization,” even as housing prices continue to rise, forcing out local workers and lower-income residents. Affordable housing is being torn down to make way for “green” high-rises designed for high-wage tech workers. Regulations are being gutted to facilitate massive, speculative, rent-seeking investments for hotels and “luxury” housing. And historic buildings are being torn down. Important places are being erased from the map – replaced with sterile, cheaply constructed glass towers.
What’s being lost is more than just buildings and neighborhood aesthetic and character—it’s a community, a way of living, a feeling, a place.
Still, many Belltowners are trying to hold on. They remember that shared histories matter—not just for nostalgia’s sake, but because they shape how we care for one another now.
Friends of Historic Belltown is part of this community effort. We help protect the buildings that hold these memories. We’ve supported landmark nominations, including successful efforts for the Wayne Apartments, Mama’s Mexican Kitchen, the Franklin Apartments, the Sheridan Apartments, the Griffin Building, and the White Garage.
We also help tell stories that center the people who made this place what it is—while humbly honoring the Indigenous peoples and cultures of this beautiful, ancient land and waterscape. We advocate for housing that regular people can afford, especially those in the service and retail industries—and others who aren’t benefiting from the high wages of the “professional managerial class” that current city policies often seem to favor. We help host public events—art installations, sidewalk talks, neighborhood walks—meant to connect us to one another and to the deeper roots of this neighborhood.
Because the future of Belltown doesn’t belong to investors or algorithms—it belongs to the people who are here, making a life in this changing city.
Our slogan: It Starts on Second!
Contact: info@friendsofhistoricbelltown.org
NOTE: Friends of Historic Belltown is a CASH FREE community. In lieu of donations to us: FHB requests that donations be given to Historic Seattle, who have provided SO MUCH HELP to us in our efforts. Please consider donating at https://historicseattle.org/give/ Tell them it’s in support of their great work for protecting Belltown’s valuable historic properties!