1938
L.A. CHINATOWN'S CENTRAL PLAZA DEDICATION
/ ORIGINAL CHINATOWN'S PAST / CHINA CITY
On Saturday of June 25, 1938, California's Governor Merriam and a host
of dignitaries dedicated Los Angeles Chinatown's Central Plaza in a
gala Grand Opening ceremony. Central Plaza provided a magnificent hub
and lexus for growth into the famous colorful, vibrant Chinese American
community. Originally, New Chinatown consisted of many notable restaurants,
shops, an herbal store, a grocery store, a bean cake factory, a Chinese
deli and offices. In 1938, these long-time establishments were all moved
from Los Angeles' Old Chlnatown, not quite a mile away.
Ex-California
Governor Frank F. Merriam stated that New Chinatown "represented
a monument to those Chinese who played such an important role in building
the West and a lasting evidence of American Chinese amity." Gov.
Merriam then dedicated a curved plaque mounted on a column of the pailou,
which was "Dedicated to the Chinese Pioneers Who Participated in
the Constructive History of California." Merriam was followed to
the podium by Los Angeles Mayor F.L. Shaw and Supervisor Gordon L. McDonough.
Chinese Consul T.K. Chang remarked that the building of New Chinatown
is an example of a willingness to adopt new modern ways, that the community
needed to follow this spirit to promote "our Chinese economic and
social status."
Peter
SooHoo was a visionary native Chinese American born and raised
in Old Chinatown. He moved with facility in both the Chinese
and Los Angeles communities and gained the high trust of
both.
He
became an influential leader in the Chinese community at a relatively
young age. Fluent in Cantonese and English, he became the spokesman
for Chinatown to American institutions such as the Chamber of
Commerce and the press.
During
the 1930's, he made periodic declarations to the local papers
that the reported demise of Old Chinatown was premature, and
that customers in Chinatown were most welcome.
He
graduated in engineering from the University of Southern California,
one of the first local Chinese Americans in the field, and was
the first Chinese American to join in the Department of Water
and Power. His commitment to his community was total.
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Los
Angeles' Chinatown
was one of the nation's first malls and first modern American Chinatown,
owned and planned from the ground up by Chinese, Central Plaza would
provide a magnificent hub and lexus for growth into the famous colorful,
vibrant Chinese American community in Southern California. Peter
Soo Hoo, President of the Chinese American Association, negotiated
with Herbert Lapham of the Santa Fe Railway Company to purchase land
and build New
Chinatown. Soo Hoo formed a corporation with twenty-eight men and
women, each contributing $500 per share. New
Chinatown's brightly colored buildings and tiled pagoda roofs attracted
tourists, shoppers and diners. The eighteen stores and bean cake factory
also served the social and economic needs of the community. The clean,
contemporary appearance of New
Chinatown did much to raise the status of Chinese Americans in Los
Angeles. Inscribed "Cooperate to Achieve," New
Chinatown's west gate was constructed as a tribute to Chinese laborers
who built the railroads of California. Y.C.
Hong erected the east gate in honor of his mother and the self-sacrifices
of motherhood.
History
of "Old Chinatown"
By 1870, an identifiable "Chinatown" of 200 or so was
situated on Calle de Los Negros - Street of the Dark Hued Ones - a short
alley 50 feet wide and one block long between El Pueblo Plaza and Old
Arcadia Street. These early, mostly male, Chinese were mainly laundrymen,
market gardeners, agricultural and ranch workers, and road builders.
Despite the heavy discrimination in the late 19th century, Chinese held
a dominant economic position in the Los Angetes laundry and produce
industries for several years of this period. Consequently, old Chinatown
flourished, expanding eastward from the Plaza across Alameda Street
and eventually attaining a population of over 3000. The Exclusion Acts
inhibited any real growth for many years.
In a typical
experience, Chinese became lessees, subleasees or tenants of a major
land or property owner, such as Apablasa. Laws prohibited most from
citizenship and hence, property ownership. The Chinese densely settled
a major part of Old Chinatown on the Juan Apablasa grazing grounds and
vineyards, controlled by his old widow. Inability to gain ownership
in large measure would have dire consequences later.
Old Chinatown
in its heyday, 1890 to 1910, could count 15 or so streets and alleys,
and perhaps 200 building units. It had sufficient size and sophistication
to boast of a Chinese opera theater, three temples, a newspaper (for
a while), and later, its own telephone exchange. Old Chinatown was a
residential as well as commercial community. The slow increase in the
number of women would lead to the establishment of families with children.
During this time, most of today's leading Chinese family and district
associations, Chinatown institutions were founded, and church missions
were organized, which began the process of community acculturation.
Old Chinatown, with restaurants, curio shops, and "strange"
entertainments, even became an attraction for the early, pioneering
breed of American tourist.
L.A.'s
original Chinatown, after half a century of tenuous existence as
a self-contained
slum and black market for forbidden goods and services, was seized
using eminent domain in the 1930s and razed to make way for Union
Station, forcing 3,000
residents to start over elsewhere, their history
literally paved over.
China
City
June
7, 1938: A tourist attraction called China City opened on Ord Street
between Main and Spring streets, drawing 10,000 visitors on its first
day. The site was dreamed up by civic
activist Christine Sterling, the founder of Olvera Street, after
construction of Union Station pushed out Chinatown residents and shopkeepers.
The Main Street gate was dedicated to the late Times reporter and columnist
Harry
Carr. "He would have enjoyed watching every little store going into
place. Chinatown was one of his adventure lands," The Times said. It
was enclosed within a miniature "Great
Wall of China," with lotus pools, temple gongs, curio stands, dance
pavilions, and movie sets from The
Good Earth. Tourists rode rickshaws and ate Chinaburgers. They loved
the atmosphere, as did dignitaries like Eleanor Roosevelt. Movie stars
such as Mae West and Anna
May Wong were paid to make appearances and promote the attraction.
A fire leveled China
City in February 1939. In the late 1930s the China City project
provided an alternative for the dislocated Chinese businessman or the
would-be entrepreneur. Eventually over 70 such opportunities would exist
in China City for tenants. Two major fires in a decade sapped the vitality
of the enterprise. Though it reopened amid great fanfare in August,
business was never the same and China City was gone by the early 1950's..
