Seattle Stories: The Granada

Another Kodak 110 moment! It’s September, 1978. Me and a pile of friends were hanging out/goofing off in my apartment at The Granada, getting ready for a night of dancing to live music at our favorite club in the U district, The District Tavern. We loved that club, and if we were lucky, Randy Hansen would be doing his tribute to Jimi Hendrix. The District had a large dance floor with a metal railing around it. I saw Randy Hansen tightrope-walk that railing while playing guitar, and that was quite a sight.

Apparently getting ready for a night of dancing meant doing a few Saturday Night Fever stretches. That’s me in my lucky club shirt, with glittery San Francisco on the front. 

And here’s another photo from that same evening, showing friends and the other side of the living room, and that infamous Northwest Indian salmon painting that once hung in a DJ’s apartment atop the Space Needle. Most likely we were all having a drink or two before going dancing.

The Granada was a grand old building with funky little apartments. I loved the French doors between the bedroom and the living room, the mighty steam radiators, the gigantic metal bathtub – and detested the horrid, miniscule kitchen with it’s warped old linoleum. You can see a glimpse of the kitchen behind my manically grinning friend.

Here’s a couple of newspaper clippings from 1923.