I-Hotel

The I-Hotel, officially known as the International Hotel, was built in 1907 and was a low-cost residential hotel located at the corner of Kearny and Jackson Streets in the Manilatown section of San Francisco.It was home to many Asian Americans, specifically a large Filipino American population.

History

During the urban renewal and redevelopment movement of the mid-1960s, the hotel was targeted for demolition, and the first eviction notices were issued to residents in 1968. However, nine years of litigation, public protests, and disagreements between and among activists and public officials ensued.

While several local leaders were involved in the struggle against eviction, at one point, controversial Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones led the fight. After Jones was appointed as Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission, the Housing Authority voted to acquire the building using $1.3 million in federal funds and then to turn the it over to tenants rights groups.Reiterman, Tim, and John Jacobs. "". Dutton, 1982. ISBN 0-525-24136-1. page 282-3.] When a court rejected that plan and ordered evictions in January of 1977, the Peoples Temple provided two thousand of the five thousand people that surrounded the building, barricaded the doors and chanted "No, no, no evictions!" Sheriff Richard Hongisto, a political ally of Jones, refused to execute the eviction order, which resulted in Hongisto being held in contempt and serving five days in his own jail.

The final residents were evicted on August 4, 1977. In 1978, then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein created an International Hotel Citizens Advisory Committee, which was unable to break the deadlock between low-cost housing advocates and the property owner. The building stood empty while the fate of the site continued to be debated, but was finally demolished in 1981.

In 1994 the site was acquired by St. Mary's. The air rights was 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 2 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.

Sources

* cite news
last = Estrella
first = Cicero A.
coauthors =
title = 'Manilatown' will rise again: 2 blocks of Kearny designated to honor Filipino immigrants
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = San Francisco Chronicle
date = July 28, 2004
url = http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/07/28/BAG357U2TN1.DTL
accessdate = 2006-12-03
* cite news
last = Pangilinan
first = Erin
coauthors =
title = The rebirth of I-Hotel
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Philippine News Online
date = August 17, 2005
url = http://www.philippinenews.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=a9da4f45c88d7ba6ac470b00a84a7586
accessdate = 2006-12-03

* cite news
last = Pangilinan
first = Erin
coauthors =
title = Historic hotel rises from rubble
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Philippine News Online
date = August 31, 2005
url = http://www.philippinenews.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=396529bbeee7746b519df8b2a82fd4eb | accessdate = 2006-12-03

External links

* http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/ihotel/ User photographs documenting 30+ years of I-Hotel and its residents
* [http://www.manilatown.org/ Manilatown Heritage Foundation] , currently on the site of I-Hotel
* [http://www.chonkmoonhunter.com/The_Fall_of_the_I-Hotel.html The Fall of the I-Hotel] , documentary (1983, 2005)
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=VCgM466nVtI International Hotel SFGTV San Francisco APA Heritage Month] , "SFGTV" (May 2007)