What does the Filipinotown name on the Seattle Streetcar actually mean?
Most Filipinos in Seattle don't know their community's name and now ride through downtown on a streetcar. In May 2025, the Seattle Streetcar added the word Filipinotown to the Chinatown-International District car on the First Hill Line, right next to Chinatown, Japantown, and Little Saigon. For a community that spent a century in that neighborhood and almost got erased from the official record, those few letters carry real weight.
Here is the short timeline behind that one word:
- Early 1920s: Filipinos settle into Seattle's Chinatown-International District, drawn by cannery and farm labor, and a "Manilatown" takes shape near Maynard and King by the 1930s
- 1986: "Filipino Town" is named in the National Register nomination for the Seattle Chinatown Historic District
- 2017: The City Council restores "historic Filipino Town" to a Chinatown-International District resolution in an 8-0 vote, after it was quietly removed
- May 21, 2025: "Filipinotown" is unveiled on the streetcar, alongside Chinatown, Japantown, and Little Saigon
I rode that line, and I'll be honest, I didn't catch the word the first time. You get used to a place and you stop reading it. Then one day you see it, and something settles in your chest. Nakita ka nila. They saw you.
The Manongs came to the CID, and they came to work
Filipinos weren't the first to the neighborhood. The Chinese built it, and the Japanese followed. We came after, settling into Chinatown and the Central District in the 1920s and 1930s. We came as U.S. nationals, which meant we could be recruited as cheap labor without the immigration limits slapped on other Asians, and we were. The men followed the work, dispatched out of Seattle every spring to the salmon canneries up in Alaska, then back to Chinatown for the winter. Historian Doug Chin tells this story in Seattle's International District: The Making of a Pan-Asian American Community (University of Washington Press, 2001). These were the Manongs, the older brothers, the first generation, the ones who built a life out of almost nothing.
The block they filled sat between South Jackson, Maynard Avenue South, 6th Avenue South, and South King.
People called it Manilatown, or Little Manila. There were barbershops, lodges, social clubs, and a cafe or two. City records from the 1950s called it the Filipino district. This wasn't a story passed around at the dinner table. It was on the maps.
So why does it feel like a secret? Because the strong Filipino presence on that block faded after the 1990s, and memory follows people. When the bodies move, the story goes quietly. That's how cultural decline and fading of tradition works. Nobody burns the record. They just stop saying the name.
The name almost got deleted on purpose
n 2017 the city nearly proved that point. The City Council drafted a resolution to protect the CID, and it named the micro-neighborhoods worth preserving: Chinatown, Japantown, Little Saigon, and historic Manilatown. Then, somewhere before the vote, the words "historic Manilatown" got quietly removed.
The community noticed. Filipino Americans showed up to City Hall and said no, including former Councilmember Dolores Sibonga, who grew up in the neighborhood. The council, including Council President Bruce Harrell, who became Seattle's mayor, admitted they got it wrong. They voted 8-0 to put the name back, this time as historic Filipino Town, a term meant to include all of us and not only the folks from Manila. The name wasn't new either. It was already in the 1986 paperwork that got the Seattle Chinatown Historic District onto the National Register of Historic Places.
So the streetcar in 2025 wasn't a gift handed down from the city. It was the next step in a fight that had been going on for decades. Two people pushed it over the line: Cynthia Mejia-Giudici, a former president of the Filipino American National Historical Society's Seattle chapter, and Devin Israel Cabanilla, who started Filipinotown Seattle. They filed a formal request with the City and King County Metro. The city said yes. Cabanilla called it one of the easiest government interactions he'd ever had, which tells you the resistance was never really about paperwork. It was about decades of people doing the legwork first.
What a name on a train has to do with a house
You might wonder why a Realtor is writing about a streetcar.
Here is the connection, and it's real. A name is one kind of footprint. A deed is another. For most of our history in this city, Filipinos rented, bunked, and moved with the work. We left a mark on the neighborhood and very little of it in our own names. The streetcar fixes part of that. It says we were here. But a word painted on a train can be repainted. A house with your family's name on the title is much harder to erase.
The Manongs couldn't own much. We can. Every Filipino family that buys a home in Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, or Kirkland is writing the name down somewhere it stays. Not for a season. For the kids. Iiwan mo sa mga anak mo, at sa mga anak, ng anak mo. You leave it to them.
I came from the mud myself. I know what it is to start with little and want to build something that lasts.
Common questions
Where is Filipinotown in Seattle? It's within the Chinatown-International District. The historic core, once called Little Manila or Manilatown, was the block bounded by South Jackson Street, Maynard Avenue South, 6th Avenue South, and South King Street.
When did Filipinos first settle in Seattle? In the early 1920s. As U.S. nationals, Filipino men were recruited as cannery and farm laborers, and many wintered in Seattle's Chinatown between seasons. A Manilatown had taken shape near Maynard and King by the 1930s.
What happened to the Manilatown name in 2017? The City Council drafted a CID resolution that named historic Manilatown, then quietly removed it before the vote. After community pushback, the council voted 8-0 to restore it as a historic Filipino Town.
When was Filipinotown added to the Seattle Streetcar? It was unveiled May 21, 2025, on the First Hill Line Chinatown-International District vehicle, alongside Chinatown, Japantown, and Little Saigon.
Who pushed for the streetcar change? Cynthia Mejia-Giudici, a former president of the FANHS Seattle chapter, and Devin Israel Cabanilla, founder of Filipinotown Seattle. They submitted a formal request to the City of Seattle and King County Metro.
Want to put your own name down somewhere it stays?
The streetcar proves a community can write its name back into a city. A home does the same thing for a family.
I'm Teddy Lim, a Filipino Realtor and broker with eXp Realty serving Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, and surrounding Washington markets. I work with families buying their first home, helping parents move, or building something to leave behind. With over 14 years in real estate and over a hundred closed transactions, my approach is advisory, not transactional. You'll get the honest answer, even when it isn't the one you hoped for.
Tell me your situation and what you're trying to build, and I'll help you figure out the next step.
Ready to take the next step?
Schedule a meeting: www.calendly.com/book-a-call-or-zoom
With Gratitude,
Teddy Lim, eXp Realty Call or text: (206) 899-6396 www.tlimre.com info@tlimre.com
Sources:
Streetcar Filipinotown addition, May 21, 2025: SDOT Blog, https://sdotblog.seattle.gov/2025/05/21/celebrating-filipinotown-addition-to-seattle-streetcar/ Unveiling details and partners: King County Metro Blog, https://kingcountymetro.blog/2025/05/22/celebrating-filipinotown-addition-to-the-seattle-streetcar/
Mejia-Giudici and Cabanilla, formal request, and CID history: International Examiner, https://iexaminer.org/seattle-streetcar-adds-filipinotown-to-wrap-design-recognizing-overlooked-chinatown-id-history/
2017 resolution vote and 1986 National Register reference: The Seattle Times, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/after-outcry-seattle-city-council-gives-nod-to-historic-filipino-town/
Little Manila block boundaries and 2017 amendment: Northwest Asian Weekly, https://nwasianweekly.com/2024/06/remembering-the-cids-filipino-landmarks/
Late-1800s cannery labor history, citing Doug Chin, Seattle's International District, 2009: The Seattle Globalist, https://seattleglobalist.com/2018/07/31/filipino-americans-champion-legacy-in-chinatown-international-district/75673
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