Willatzen & Byrne, 1909

A rare example of Prairie School commercial structure, built for $55,000 to house Chinese laborers. Known variously through the years as the Hotel Yukon, the Hotel Ivy, Hudson Hotel and the Hotel Louisa. Rows of rectangular metal oriels overhang the brick ground floor.

The basement housed the Hong Kong Chinese Society Club, better known as the “Bucket of Blood” speakeasy in the 1920s and ’30s. The stairway down from the 7th Avenue sidewalk has murals and Art Deco designs painted on the walls. Hotel rooms in the northwest section of the second floor were demolished circa 1940 to create a large casino room, the walls of which have painted murals of Chinese subjects. Lower storefronts have been altered; the upper floors were condemned in 1970.

Though still extant, the building is in severe need of renovation.

Research and photographs courtesy Jess M. Giessel.

References
Pacific Builder & Engineer, February 6, 1909, p. 6.