International Hotel Manilatown Center

What you need to know

The International Hotel Manilatown Center is at 868 Kearny Street at the edge of Chinatown, on the site of the original I-Hotel. The I-Hotel was a residential hotel for elderly Filipino and Chinese immigrants and became the focus of a decade-long eviction fight in the 1970s. Tenants were removed by sheriff’s deputies on August 4, 1977. The site sat as an empty lot until the current building, with 104 units of senior housing above ground-floor community space, was completed in 2005.

What to Expect

The ground floor houses a museum and community space documenting Manilatown, the neighborhood that was once home to thousands of Filipino Americans in San Francisco. Exhibits cover the I-Hotel eviction, Filipino immigration to the West Coast, and the activist movements that grew from the fight to save the building.

The space is small. A visit takes 30 to 45 minutes. The I-Hotel eviction is cited in histories of San Francisco’s tenant-rights and Asian American civil-rights movements.

Visiting

Address: 868 Kearny Street, Chinatown / Manilatown
Hours: Limited; check manilatown.org for current hours
Cost: Free, donations accepted
Tips: Exhibits are self-guided. Staff are sometimes available to answer questions.

Getting There

The building is a short walk from the Chinatown-Rose Pak BART station and from Montgomery BART. The 8 Bayshore runs on Kearny. The 30 Stockton and 45 Union/Stockton run on Stockton, one block west. Street parking in Chinatown is very limited.