Jules Maes Saloon is by some accounts the oldest bar in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. It opened in 1888 in the city's Georgetown neighborhood. The building it occupies, "The Brick Store", at 5919 Airport Way at the corner of Nebraska, is listed as a Seattle Historic Site.

History

The bar first opened in a building at 5953 Airport Way South (before it was called Airport Way, for nearby

Boeing Field Boeing Field, officially King County International Airport , is a public airport owned and operated by King County, five miles south of downtown Seattle, Washington. The airport is sometimes referred to as KCIA (King County International Airpo ...

) under a different name. It was purchased by Jules Gustaf Maes, a Belgian-born bartender, who eventually changed its name and moved it to the 5919 building. The back room was once used as a bookie joint. The bar was owned by June Espelend for a period. John and Vanessa LeMaster, who had owned it since 2005, closed it during the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. During the coronavirus pandemic the LeMasters closed it permanently; it was reopened by Raché Hemmelgarn in January of 2021. File:Jules Maes interior.jpg, Interior File:Seattle Georgetown 15.jpg, Exterior File:Jules Mae's Restaurant, Georgetown, Seattle, circa 1980 (49055653241).jpg, c. 1980

References

External links

* {{Restaurants in Seattle 1888 establishments in Washington Territory Drinking establishments in Washington (state) Georgetown, Seattle Restaurants disestablished during the COVID-19 pandemic Restaurants in Seattle Restaurants established in 1888