Singer songwriter Kat Hjelte performing atop Lowdown Ballroom’s garage terrace (Image: Donia Rose Photography)

What if your Capitol Hill neighbors’ microbusiness is a ballroom that puts on shows in the street? The Lowdown Ballroom is putting the concept to the test on 11th Ave E just north of Mercer in a four-bedroom, 1906-built house with a fantastic basement and a garage that serves as a convenient outdoor summer stage.

“When we were first researching, I said, ‘There is no way we can do this,’” Madeline Yan tells CHS about the unusual Capitol Hill home-based business she and husband Alex Yan have launched out of the pandemic.

But an appreciation and love for music, city zoning, good sound insulation, good insurance, and better neighbors have come together for Lowdown, adding a new venue for live music and performance on Capitol Hill.

(Image: Donia Rose Photography)

(Image: Donia Rose Photography)

(Image: Donia Rose Photography)

(Image: Lowdown Ballroom)

(Image: Donia Rose Photography)

With a starting mix of small in-person shows and larger outdoor performances on weekends, plus availabilities for rehearsal and rentals, the Lowdown Ballroom is a home-based business that the backers hope also help foster diverse performers and arts in the neighborhood.

While corner stores used to be found smack in the middle of the city’s residential neighborhoods, places like the soon to be revived Volunteer Park Cafe are now a rarity in Seattle. But as the COVID-19 crisis and restrictions have encouraged the city to loosen permitting around the types of small, home-based businesses it allows, you might see more creative endeavours popping up around Capitol Hill’s areas of dense apartments and its leafy single-family streets.

Though it would be allowed even before Seattle’s loosened microbusiness permits, Lowdown can be an inspiration for how best to mix creativity, commerce, and neighbors. The rist space also helps. Alex says the performance and rehearsal space is a converted “mother in law” unit, easily separated from the rest of the house. The neighbor across the street is also extremely accommodating — Lowell Elementary School is mostly quiet through the summer and the Lowdown’s shows will take place at night or on the weekends when the campus is usually empty.

As for those shows, Alex and Madeline’s years in the swing dancing community mean they mostly know jazz musicians but they are hoping to host an eclectic mix of shows including upcoming performances with swing jazz and folk rock. Their backgrounds are also helping the performance venue entrepreneurs. Madeline worked with Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio manager Amy Novo and credits her with showing her the ropes of the business. Alex is a software developer which helps as the couple strings together systems like Square to process ticket orders and book the venue.

Things have started small for the small performance venue business. The largest show topped out around 50 people, Madeline and Alex said.

But the hope is for Lowdown to slowly grow into a regular slate of shows and performances, to keep the ballroom busy with bookings and rehearsals, and to give neighbors and visitors a good way to gather again.

“As we know, with the city, a lot of art spaces are disappearing,” Alex said. “People really seem to enjoy getting together.”

The Lowdown Ballroom is located at 628 11th Ave E. You can learn more at lowdownballroom.com.

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