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In 1864, Matthias Monet, an African American pioneer and native of Oregon, arrives in Seattle and opens Monet's Seattle Restaurant and Coffee Saloon opposite the Yesler, Denny and Company's Store.

In 1866, Monet purchased 17 acres on Lake Union, which he later sold. His Railroad House and Restaurant opened in 1869 and was valued at $8,700 in the 1870 census.

Sources: Esther Hall Mumford. Seattle's Black Victorians 1852-1901 (Seattle: Ananse Press, 1980), 21,104. Quintard Taylor, The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle's Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994), 29, 30.

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