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This simple brick building, constructed in 1909, is typical of the workers' hotels that lined First Avenue after Denny Hill was regraded. The hill blocked the city’s northward progress until it was regraded (between 1898 and 1911) and opened up for development. In only twenty years, Seattle’s population had exploded from 80,671 (1900) to 315,312 (1920), creating a critical need for housing. Belltown quickly became a concentrated residential area. Workers’ hotels like this one, often without individual bath and cooking facilities, lined First Avenue. Residents were typically single men, many of whom worked in lumber camps, canneries or ships for part of the year. The Hotel Strand's two upper stories had 50 rooms, each with a wash basin, but only seven toilets and four bathtubs. Now called the Kasota, it has been altered with modernized storefronts and new windows.
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