The Columbia City Theater was built in 1923 and was home to movie theaters under a few names - the Columbia, the Pix, and the Rainier. It was also a music venue, which reportedly hosted Jimi Hendrix's first show, while he was still a student at Garfield High School. The Rainier Cinema operated in 1970s, showing Black and "Blaxploitation" films. In the 1980s, the theater became a part of the early punk and grunge scenes and later was a center for rave culture in the 1990s, under the name the Lish House. In 2022, the building was bought by a partnership between Rainier Avenue Radio and the Cultural Space Agency in order to provide a community-owned space for cultural events and programs.

This image shows the Columbia City Theater's facade on Rainier Avenue in 1986.

Caption information source: "Historic Columbia City Theater Purchased by Rainier Avenue Radio and the Cultural Space Agency," by Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development, from The Daily Plan It Blog at https://dailyplanit.seattle.gov
Caption information source: notes in Mark Dempsey Seattle Theaters Collection, 1993.41.2.126.