‘Texas Alley' in the summer of 1969 / Courtesy of Rich Kent

One day in 1969, John Richardson was taken to Itaewon for the first time. Decades later, he documented the encounter: "Now here's an alternate reality: GIs lurching around with red eyes, Korean bar girls in miniskirts, little stores selling tie-dyed T-shirts and satin jackets with maps of Korea stitched onto the backs." He particularly remembered the "bar girls [who] giggle and promise us ‘number one long time.'"

The reason this high school student, whose father was the CIA chief of station in Seoul, was visiting the area was to find marijuana, known then as "happy smoke": "For a buck fifty, we get 20 cigarettes that have been carefully emptied and refilled, the tips twisted into little points."

The same alley in Itaewon has gone through many changes but still has some familiar features, May 13, 2023. Courtesy of Matt VanVolkenburg

Itaewon during this period was going through numerous changes. Though many assume it was bars and brothels that first attracted foreigners to Itaewon, it was actually "Arirang Village," a housing settlement for foreign diplomats and military officers built on the hill behind the Hamilton Hotel between 1954 and 1956, that first brought Americans and others into the area.

It wasn't until 1957 that UN Club opened and the hill behind the fire station — then known as "Texas Alley" — started to become known as a red-light district, helped in part by city authorities pushing sex workers out of certain areas in central Seoul. Violence between competing gangs involved in prostitution and black marketing was rampant, but was temporarily muted after Park Chung-hee's 1961 coup, when gang members were rounded up, paraded through the streets and sent to work camps.

Usadan-ro looking north towards Namsan, Arirang Village, and the fire station observation tower. Club King is visible on the right. Courtesy of Rich Kent

Throughout the 1960s, infrastructure improved in the area, and the period between 1967 and 1969 saw a number of buildings erected that still stand today. These buildings housed clubs like 007, Playboy, UN, King, Seven, American and Lucky that obtained tourist licences allowing them to serve tax-free alcohol so as to entice GIs to spend U.S. dollars off base.

Itaewon, published in The Korea Times May 3, 1964. Korea Times Archive

Itaewon was also home to a thriving GI-oriented live music scene, and by 1970 American-style rock music was becoming popular enough with Koreans to allow some Itaewon bands national success. As Larry Tressler, a photographer for the 8th Army Public Affairs Office who performed with the band The Devils, recalled, "Playing every night in Itaewon was the band's ‘bread and butter.' Then, usually on weekends and afternoons, they could get real, legit gigs, hoping to get discovered and climb the ladder to success."

In 1968 it was reported that cigarettes filled with marijuana, known as "happy smoke," were being sold in Itaewon, and these became so popular that bars complained of a 50 percent drop in beer sales. For years the Korean government responded with indifference to requests by the U.S. military to enforce the Narcotics Act and control marijuana, but this changed after U.S. troop withdrawals were announced in 1970.

This period also saw rising racial tensions in the U.S. Army that were aggravated by discriminatory treatment of Black soldiers in Korean clubs. By the summer of 1971 racial discord was erupting into violence on or near U.S. bases not only in Korea, but worldwide. As one Black soldier told Stars and Stripes that July, "We're tired of discrimination. We're tired of it in the vil and we're tired of it in the Army. We're not gonna take it anymore." A brawl in Itaewon that June resulted in it being put off-limits for a week. Another took place in August. The Army took the problem seriously and, among various measures, established the Promote Equality Action Committee (PEACE) made up of seven Itaewon club owners, the president of the Rose Society (a group representing sex workers) and the American commander of Yongsan Garrison, among others. By September the previously quoted soldier had had a change of heart, saying "I found out that the Army — at least some of the people in it — care about the problem, about my problems," and they "showed me that I had something I didn't know I had. I can talk to people. A lot of them listen to me." Though the problem wasn't solved, things were improving because "people are talking and people are listening. We're getting it all out in the open there."

Throughout the 1970s more clubs appeared, but one broke the mold: Sportsman's, which was opened by Tom Casey in 1978. As Wayne Kelly, who frequented the club in the early 1980s, remembered, Casey "opened the first club in Itaewon geared towards foreigners, yet also welcomed Koreans. He chose a large location on the main strip some distance from the Hamilton Hotel-Hooker Hill-GI club scene. He purposefully did not apply for the special tourism license and catered to civilian foreigners who were willing to pay the local rate for alcohol. This drew in a more genteel crowd of both foreigners and Koreans who were less likely to grate on each other. It worked like a charm. His integrated nightclub was a huge success." The club was visited by celebrities from overseas and influenced the development of Western-style hookup culture in Itaewon clubs that increasingly took hold as the 1980s progressed.

Window-shopping, published in The Korea Times Sept. 28, 1988. Korea Times Archive

Itaewon began to change in other ways in the 1980s. When international conferences were held in Seoul in 1983, the answer to the question of where to send foreign tourists to shop was an obvious one: support the already-existing enclave of English-speaking shopkeepers in Itaewon. As a result, the number of stores in Itaewon doubled by 1984, and the years 1983-84 saw a spate of new construction around Itaewon, so much so that a soldier absent from 1982 to 1985 found it hard to recognize the place. American fast food franchises like Pizza Hut, Dunkin', Wendy's and KFC arrived at this time.

Itaewon fine dining, published in The Korea Times Sept. 28, 1988. Korea Times Archive

Among the new clubs opening in the early 1980s were a number of "gay clubs," a term borrowed from Japan which actually referred to transgender clubs. As historian Todd Henry has noted, "Itaewon was trans before it was gay." Reports on sex workers in Itaewon who turned out to be men go back to the 1960s, but it was in the 1980s that they found stable work when a number of entrepreneurs opened clubs with Las Vegas-style package shows.

Gay bar, published in The Korea Times Oct. 10, 1997. Korea Times Archive

In addition to this, next door in Hannam-dong, numerous clubs opened attracting Korean and Japanese clientele, and amid all these changes, G. Cameron Hurst gave a presentation in early 1985 for Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) Korea titled "Itaewon: The Gentrification of a Boomtown."

Itaewon, published in The Korea Times Nov. 9, 1993. Korea Times Archive

One result of this was a backlash as critics decried the decadence and "cross cultural encounters" on display in Itaewon. A number of films released at the time portrayed the neighborhood as a hive of villainous foreigners, and their perceived potential for cultural contamination only worsened with the arrival of HIV in the mid-1980s. A variety of factors including decadence crackdowns, the rise of new trendy neighborhoods and a decade-long late-night business curfew led to a drop in Itaewon's popularity in the 1990s.

Itaewon street scene, published in The Korea Times June 15, 2002. Korea Times Archive

This all changed, however, as the arrival of Seoul Metro Line 6, the 2002 World Cup and new waves of foreigners like migrant workers and English teachers contributed to the rise of the "World Food Street" behind the Hamilton Hotel in the early 2000s, which made the area seem hip again as a new generation of increasingly well-traveled Koreans saw the area as a source of authentic foreign food and drink.

People gather around a food stall in Itaewon, August 2005. Courtesy of Matt VanVolkenburg

This trend has only continued into the present, though fears of foreign contamination still erupt from time to time, such as in 2020 during the early days of COVID, while xenophobia and criticism of decadence played a role in the blaming of victims of the 2022 Halloween crowd crush. With U.S. troops relocating from Yongsan Garrison to Pyeongtaek and redevelopment looming south of Itaewon Station, how Itaewon will change in the future is anyone's guess.

Many more stories about Itaewon's history and development will be shared on Saturday, Oct. 19, in an excursion by RAS Korea. Participation costs 30,000 won, or 25,000 won for RAS Korea members. Visit raskb.com for more information.

Matt VanVolkenburg has a master's degree in Korean studies from the University of Washington. He is the blogger behind populargusts.blogspot.kr, and co-author of "Called by Another Name: A Memoir of the Gwangju Uprising."