Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute
performing arts center in Seattle, Washington

The Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute is a cultural, artistic, and educational center for community that focuses on Black and African American art, artists, and audiences. The center is located at 104 17th Avenue South, in the Central District of Seattle, Washington, in the United States. It is owned and operated by the City of Seattle, and serves as the headquarters for the eponymous LANGSTON Seattle and Central District Forum (CD Forum), both non-profit organizations.
Constructed as a synagogue in 1915, designed by Marcus Priteca, the Jewish congregation sold the building to the City of Seattle in 1969, and following refurbishment, was repurposed as an arts centre. The center is named in honour of Langston Hughes, an author and leader of the Harlem Renaissance. The building is designated as a Seattle landmark.
The building was previously known as the Yesler-Atlantic Community Center, the Langston Hughes Cultural Center, The Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center, and the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center.
Building history
The Byzantine Revival style synagogue, completed in 1915, was designed by B. Marcus Priteca for the Orthodox Jewish congregation Chevra Bikur Cholim, now Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath. Priteca completed his plans for the building in early 1913; the synagogue was dedicated in August 1915. The lower story of the addition on the south side of the building dates from 1961, the upper story from 1971.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6486519. VIAF identifies the subject as 316746784. The Library of Congress control number is sh98002644. Authority coordinates are 47.601, -122.310. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1915, 1969, 1913 and 1961.
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This entry incorporates text from “Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.