The International Hotel

This twentieth day of Filipino American History Month brings information on the International Hotel (I-Hotel).

Filipino Americans have a long history of fighting for equal rights and justice. One notable event in the Filipino American movement revolved around the I-Hotel. From 1920-35 the Filipino male population in the United States was 39,328. Legislation forbade Filipinos from owning land or setting up businesses. They were to be kept moving, remain transient. They stayed in rooming houses, hotels, and labor camps. The I-Hotel was one of these. Manilatown, the Kearny and Jackson Street area of San Francisco, became a permanent settlement, a convenient culture contact. It was the home field workers returned to, where merchant marines lived while in port, where distant relatives and friends could be contacted, and where they could enjoy the security of a common culture.

The I-Hotel served as a family and provided protection. The Filipino community in San Francisco existed in groups dictated by economic necessity and blood brotherhood. The I-Hotel became a symbol for an entire minority community.

About 1954, the I-Hotel became significant for yet another reason. Enrico Banduccci, opened his original “Hungry I” nightclub next door to Club Mandalay in the basement of the I-Hotel where many performing artists got their start, including Nina Simone, the Smothers Brothers, Lenny Bruce, the Kingston Trio, Dr. Irwin Chory, and Bill Cosby.

During the urban renewal and redevelopment movement of the mid-1960s, the I-Hotel was target for demolition, despite its full occupancy. The first eviction notices were issued to residents in 1968, and began an almost 40-year battle spurring disagreements and debate among activists and public officials.

For years after the first eviction notices were served in 1968, many individuals were involved in the long fight that took place on the streets, in courtrooms, and in the everyday lives of the I-Hotel and Manilatown residents. Some community characters involved in the struggle were Al Robles, Filipino American San Francisco Poet, and Bill Sorro, Filipino American activist.

The San Francisco Housing Authority Commission voted to acquire the building using $1.3 million in federal funds and turned it over to tenants rights groups. When a court rejected that plan and ordered evictions in January of 1977, more than five thousand people surrounded the building, barricaded the doors, and chanted against the evictions. Sheriff Richard Hongisto refused to execute the eviction order, which resulted in his being held in contempt and serving five days in his own jail.

The final residents were evicted on August 4, 1977. The building stood empty while the fate of the site continued to be debated, but it was finally demolished in 1981.

Subsequently, because of strong community opposition the site was designated by the Board of Supervisors as a site for low income senior housing. In 1994, the site was acquired by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco. The air rights were later sold to Chinatown Community Development Center which planned to build a replacement low-cost residential project. In 2003, construction began on the new I-Hotel, and the building was completed on August 26, 2005. The new building contains 105 apartments of senior housing. A lottery was held to determine priority for occupancy, with the two remaining living residents of the original I-Hotel given priority. Occupancy started in October 2005. The new building also contains a ground-floor community center and a historical display commemorating the original I-Hotel.