From The People’s Wall landmark nomination (PDF)
Figure 18. The People’s Wall detail of Charlie “Bird” Parker. (Photo: Carlos Imani, Elite Collective, 2014)
The Seattle Department of Neighborhoods’ Landmarks Preservation Board has voted unanimously to approve the designation of The People’s Wall as an official Seattle landmark.
Located at 1919 E Spruce in the Central District, the street-level concrete retaining wall and its 1970 mural have long stood as a community monument.
The People’s Wall sits on the eastern border of a site that once housed a two-story duplex serving as the second headquarters of the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party from 1969 to 1971.
The nomination was pursued by a community group organized as the Black Heritage Society of Washington State.
“The mural depicted on the People’s Wall has been described by SCBPP co-founder Elmer Dixon as ‘a testament to the struggle of the Black Panther Party,’” they write.
The wall is dedicated to nine fallen Panthers: Sydney Miller, Welton Butch Armstead, Albert Postel, Larry War, Lewis Jackson, Maud Allen, Carolyn Downs, Jim Graves and Henry Boyer.
With the designation vote, city staff will now collaborate with property owner Sherryl Lynn Standifer to finalize a controls and incentives agreement before submitting a formal designating ordinance to the Seattle City Council.
The site was a critical hub for revolutionary community activism. From the location, the SCBPP operated the Welton Armstead Community Center and the Sydney Miller People’s Free Medical Clinic — the first free healthcare clinic in the Pacific Northwest.
Today, that legacy survives just three blocks away via the Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center, the only remaining clinic in operation out of 13 originally founded by the Black Panther Party nationwide.
Completed on October 6, 1970, by local artist Dion Henderson, the wall’s 38.5-foot-long mural serves as a powerful visual archive of the era’s national and local civil rights struggles. The artwork features striking depictions of prominent national figures, including:
- Angela Davis and Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale.
- The “New York 21” and revolutionary icon Malcolm X.
- Legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker.
In 2008, local artist Eddie Ray Walker re-touched the mural for the chapter’s 40th anniversary, adding several of the names to ensure their memory endured.
The Landmarks Preservation Board found that The People’s Wall met multiple designation standards. The board recognized its direct association with historical events that significantly shaped the community, its cultural and political heritage, and its prominence as an easily identifiable visual feature contributing to the identity of the Central District. Specific elements designated for permanent preservation include the mural itself, the “L-shaped” concrete retaining wall, and the eastern portion of the property parcel.
The wall’s survival is miraculous. After the FBI attempted multiple raids, the Black Panthers vacated the building in 1971. The federal government subsequently seized the property and razed the original duplex in 1973, leaving the lot vacant for a decade before townhomes were built in 1983.
Despite decades of rapid gentrification which has seen the Central District’s Black population plummet from over 70% in the 1970s to just 10% in 2026, the wall has survived and, now, will be more fully protected from the city’s ongoing changes.
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