Panama Hotel and Tea House

The Panama Hotel was opened in 1910 by a Japanese-American architect (a first) as a single-room accommodation for Japanese men desirous of working in America. Today, the Panama Hotel is a groundbreaking, momentous edifice for people of Japanese-American heritage in Washington in particular and Northwest US in general, with the original hotel open for occupancy to the public in Seattle. The Panama Hotel stands for how memory continues to exist and comes to the fore even when it is thought to be down and out, dead and buried.