The historic Seven Gables Theater in Seattle was destroyed in a three-alarm fire on Christmas Eve. It took over 100 firefighters to finally put down the flames that gutted the 95-year-old indie movie theater that was a landmark in Seattle’s University District.
The building had been vacant since 2017, when the owners finally gave up and closed it. Since then, as could be expected, squatters immediately moved in, breaking the boarded-up windows and taking possession of the building. Neighbors complained almost continuously for three years to the city, which did nothing. The squatters were out of sight, so out of mind. Seattle has already demonstrated that they care more for the street people and squatters, than for the taxpayers of Seattle, so the neighbors complained in vain. The squatters set many fires inside the building, and this one was just the last straw. Welcome to today’s Seattle.
Calling-all-RushBabes 
How sad. I’m sure it was a place of many cherished memories for lots of Seattleites.
Yeah, until the U District turned into the hell-hole it has been for the past decade, full of street people and homeless camps. There have actually been a number of “adverse possession” cases in Seattle, where squatters moved into vacant houses, and the actual owners had to fight in court to get their houses back.