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A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHINESE AMERICANS IN LOS ANGELES AND
AT EL PUEBLO
The rise of the Chinese community of Los Angeles was an outgrowth
of larger United States developments during the 19th century.
Chinese males from Canton arrived in Gum Saan (Gold Mountain-the
Chinese name for the United States) in response to rumors of quick
wealth in the Northern California gold fields, and subsequent
recruitment as railroad workers. Theoretically, they planned to
return home once they had earned enough money to sustain themselves
in China. However, few succeeded in attaining sizable wealth in
the gold mines or railroads, due to various forms of labor exploitation
and the rising tide of virulent anti-Chinese sentiment, especially
by organized labor and the press in San Francisco.
The 1850 census for Los Angeles listed two Chinese house servants-Ah
Luce and Ah Fou-as residents and thus represents the origins of
a Chinese presence in the city. When the transcontinental railroad
was completed in 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah, Chinese railroad
labor was curtailed, forcing them to seek new avenues of employment.
Chinatown Marsschealt Street during a parade During the late 1860s, several Chinese laborers were recruited
from Northern California to build a wagon road in Newhall, slightly
north of Los Angeles. However, the Chinese as a group were banned
increasingly from regular wage labor by nativist agitation and
government regulation. Thus, by default, the Chinese of Los Angeles
came to fill an important sector of the economy as entrepreneurs.
Some became proprietors and employees of small hand-laundries,
restaurants, farmers and wholesale produce peddlers, while others
ran gambling establishments, and other businesses considered "non-competitive,"
or jobs that were left vacant by the absence of workers in the
Gold Rush migration to California.
By 1870 a population of about 200 had settled in a narrow block
located on the Plaza's east side and known as Calle de los Negros-parallel
to today's Los Angeles Street-across from the Garnier Block. They
worked as farm laborers, servants, road builders and small shop
keepers. During this period, Chinese became the dominant group
in agricultural produce as growers, vendors, and market proprietors.
They distributed their produce from carts around the Plaza. In
1888 a hand-laundry was in operation on the site of today's Plaza
Substation. Merchants owned stores and sold goods for both Chinese
and non-Chinese customers along Main, Los Angeles, Alameda, and
Marchessault Streets. For example, in the 1890s William Lee, owner
of the Heng Lee Fancy Goods in the Vickery/Brunswig Building,
raised his family in the Pico House across the street from his
store.
From 1883 to the mid-1910s five Chinese businesses occupied
the Agustín Olvera Adobe on the southeast end of the Plaza. Services
provided by Chinese herbalists were popular among the non-Chinese
community. These herbal 
Interior of Sun Wing Woo Store in Garnier Building 1905 In October 1871, the city witnessed its most callous act of
racial violence-the notorious "Chinese Massacre." The riot occurred
after an Anglo resident was killed after being caught in a cross
fire between two rival Chinese Tongs. An estimated crowd of 500
people of all nationalities, including leading citizens, police,
and a member of the City Council took part in a violent racial
assault on Calle de los Negros. In the end, several homes and
businesses were looted, and 19 Chinese men and boys were murdered,
including the community's respected Doctor, Chin Lee Tong. The
massacre exposed an undercurrent of racism and xenophobia that
would accompany Los Angeles urban development in the late 19th
century. Following the massacre, federal Chinese Exclusion Acts
were passed in 1882. Locally, anti-Chinese legislation was enacted
by the Los Angeles City Council, and employers signed agreements
not to hire Chinese workers. Yet, despite this climate of hate,
the Chinese made even greater efforts to maintain their culture
and community, and to make Los Angeles their home.
By the 1880s, as the non-Chinese population gradually moved
to other parts of the city, Chinese Angelenos occupied several
buildings on three sides of the Plaza and areas to the south
and east. By the turn of the century, Old Chinatown reached
an estimated population of 3,000 residents. As the largest Chinese
American community 
Main Street looking south 1890s A major setback for the Chinese American community occurred
in the 1930s when the decision was made by the City of Los Angeles
to build a major railroad terminal over much of Old Chinatown.
Through the right of eminent domain, Chinese American residents
were forced to relocate to other parts of the city-some to the
West Adams district, many to New Chinatown on Broadway while others
moved to China City located between Spring and Main Streets. As
a result of the construction of the Hollywood/Santa Ana Freeway
in the early 1950s, one third of the Garnier Building and all
buildings between Alameda and Los Angeles Streets were demolished.
Since then, Chinese Americans have continued to play an important
part in the development of Southern California, and are among
the largest and most influential populations in the City and County
of Los Angeles. This influence is particularly significant in
the San Gabriel Valley-the nation's largest suburban Chinese American
community. Today, the story of their past hardships, their contributions,
and the promise of the future is being told at the Chinese American
Museum, -located in the Old Garnier building.
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