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Chinatowns in San Jose, California

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During the 19th century and early 20th century, San Jose, California, was home to a large Chinese-American community that was centered around the Santa Clara Valley's agricultural industry. Due to anti-Chinese sentiment and official discrimination, Chinese immigrants and their descendants lived in a succession of five Chinatowns from the 1860s to the 1930s:[1][2]

  • First Market Street Chinatown (1866–1870)
  • Vine Street Chinatown (1870–1872)
  • Second Market Street Chinatown, also known as Plaza Chinatown (1872–1887)
  • Woolen Mills Chinatown (1887–1902)
  • Heinlenville, also known as the Sixth Street Chinatown (1887–1931)

Of these enclaves, the two largest were the Second Market Street Chinatown and Heinlenville.

Market and Vine Street Chinatowns

San Jose's first Chinatown was located at the southwest corner of Market and San Fernando streets, near the present-day Circle of Palms Plaza. City officials noted the Chinese presence by 1866. In February 1869, after the First Methodist Episcopal Church welcomed 166 Chinese people to its Missionary Sunday School, arsonists burned the church to the ground and sent the pastor a death threat.[3][4] By January 1870, white residents had begun complaining to the San Jose City Council about the concentration of Chinese people in the neighborhood. A couple weeks later, Chinatown burned to the ground while the San Jose Fire Department did little to save it.[5]

Within weeks, the New Chinatown Land Association leased 4 acres (1.6 ha) on Vine Street, near the Guadalupe River. The 1870 census recorded 454 residents in the Vine Street Chinatown. The city's first Chinese temple, or joss house, was later built there. Meanwhile, in March 1870, a wealthy Chinese businessman from San Francisco secured a ten-year lease of the original Market Street Chinatown's land. Pressure from Vine Street neighbors convinced some Chinese to return to Market Street. Severe flooding on the Guadalupe during the winter of 1871 to 1872 brought the short-lived Vine Street Chinatown to an end.[6]

The second Market Street Chinatown grew to about 1,400 people by 1876.[1][7] The 1880 census recorded only 614 residents, but researchers believe that this was a severe undercount typical of minority populations at the time.[6] By 1884, it occupied most of the block along Market Plaza between San Fernando and San Antonio streets. Buildings to the north were largely made of fireproof brick, while buildings to the south were made of wood.[5] Chinatown organized its own volunteer fire brigade, due to an ordinance excluding the neighborhood from the city's fire district.[8]

Initially, white residents tolerated the Chinatown to some extent because it was located in the older, less desirable Spanish part of town. However, as the main business district expanded southward along First Street, boosters increasingly viewed Chinatown's proximity to it and Market Plaza as an obstacle to growth.[6] Merchants complained of Chinatown's "blight", while parishioners at St. Joseph's Cathedral across the street objected to its "sins and smells". In 1878, Denis Kearney visited San Jose, inciting crowds against the Chinese. His Workingmen's Party championed a provision in the 1879 state constitution that briefly allowed the legislature to make the employment of Chinese people a misdemeanor offense.[9]

As anti-Chinese sentiment peaked in the 1880s, white residents tried to rein in the Chinese community. Children faced harassment when leaving the neighborhood.[10] For its part, the city passed ordinances banning important cultural practices such as firecrackers, carrying poles, and even kites.[6] The Market Street Chinatown was burned several times, but the Chinese residents quickly repaired the damage each time.[9] In January 1886, the city voted to close all Chinese-owned laundries and began arresting laundrymen for operating in wooden buildings, prompting the washhouses to stop work in protest.[11] The next month, San Jose hosted California's first statewide anti-Chinese convention.[12]

On March 24, 1887, in response to Yick Wo v. Hopkins, the city council declared Chinatown a public nuisance and discussed options for legally removing the community from the city's center. On May 4, Chinatown burned to the ground in an intense arson fire while white residents looked on. Chinatown's own emergency water tanks were nearly empty, and the city's fire department acted only to prevent the fire's spread beyond Chinatown. Local newspapers cheered the neighborhood's destruction.[13][14] The next day, the city council approved funding for a new San Jose City Hall on the plaza directly across from the former Chinatown,[13] stipulating that no Chinese labor be used in its construction.[15] Similar suspicious fires soon consumed Chinatowns in Fresno and Chico.[16] The Market Street Chinatown's inhabitants temporarily resided at San Fernando and Vine streets before moving on to the Woolen Mills Chinatown and Heinlenville, both north of the city.[17]

In 1985 and 1986, the Redevelopment Agency of San Jose funded an archaeological excavation as part of the urban renewal project that included the Circle of Palms Plaza, Fairmont Hotel, and Silicon Valley Financial Center. Uncovered artifacts were stored in a warehouse inaccessible to researchers until 2002, when the Stanford University Archaeology Center, the Stanford Department of Anthropology, History San Jose, and the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project partnered to catalog, analyze, and curate the artifacts.[18][19][20] On September 28, 2021, the city formally apologized for its past discrimination against the Chinese community, including its role in the 1887 fire.[7][21]

Woolen Mills Chinatown

After the fire, the Chinese community moved to two sites north of the city center. One of these sites was located on land leased from L. M. Hoeffler near the San Jose Woolen Manufacturing Company at Taylor and First streets. Two prominent figures in the Chinese community, Ng Fook and Chin Shin, raised the funds necessary to build the settlement, including the expensive sewer hookups demanded by the city. It went by various names, including Woolen Mills Chinatown, Big Jim's Chinatown, Taylor Street Chinatown, and Phillipsville. Unlike other Chinatowns in San Jose, Woolen Mills was mainly home to factory and farm laborers and was not known for its affluence. It peaked at a size of 15 blocks,[13] which included the Garden City Cannery and, unusually, a Chinese theater and two joss houses in close proximity.[17]

Ng Fook died in 1888, and Chin Shin returned to China not long after. After the cannery closed, most of the buildings were converted into a laundry or abandoned. Most residents left for Heinlenville by 1901. The neighborhood was destroyed in a fire the following year.[13][17] In 1999, the California Department of Transportation partnered with the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project to perform an archaeological excavation of the site as part of the completion of Guadalupe Freeway.[17]

Heinlenville

Main article: Heinlenville

Days after the burning of the Market Street Chinatown in 1887, John Heinlen began planning a new home for the city's Chinese residents on a 5-acre (2.0 ha) pasture he owned near the affluent Hensley neighborhood. He persisted despite the city denying building permits and white residents threatening to ostracize him and making threats on his life.[22][23][24] Heinlen signed contracts with Chinese merchants on June 20 and July 14, 1887, and the neighborhood was completed in 1888.[24]

Heinlenville contained a variety of merchants, barbers, traditional doctors, Chinese herbalists, and a Taoist temple, the Ng Shing Gung (Chinese: 五聖宮). Heinlenville became a first stop for many Chinese migrants to the Santa Clara Valley. It also drew Japanese migrants to the area, giving rise to a Japantown on Sixth Street.[24] At its peak, Heinlenville had a population of 4,000, more than any other Chinatown in the city's history.[25] After John Heinlen died in December 1903, his children succeeded him in running the Heinlen Company, going door to door to collect rent. Heinlenville sustained damage in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake but was not destroyed like the San Francisco Chinatown. Merchants quickly rebuilt and expanded their shops, benefiting from a booming local agricultural industry.[26]

Heinlenville declined in the 1920s as younger generations sought careers in business or manufacturing, rather than shopkeeping or gambling, or sought better housing outside the aging enclave. In 1931, during the Great Depression, the Heinlen Company declared bankruptcy and sold its Heinlenville land to the city. Most remaining residents moved to Japantown. The city razed the entire neighborhood, except for the Ng Shing Gung building, to make way for a municipal corporation yard.[27] After an 18-year legal battle, the Ng Shing Gung was dismantled in May 1949. In 1991, it was reconstructed in History Park in San Jose and is now a museum containing artifacts from Heinlenville.[28][29]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Gong-Guy, Lillian; Wong, Gerrye (2007). Chinese in San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley. ISBN 9780738547770.
  2. ^ Potter, Laura; Yamane, Maya; Mau, Matthew; Lister, Brianna (June 2011). "San Jose Chinatowns Heritage Fair" (PDF). Market Street Chinatown Archaeological Project. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  3. ^ Rodriguez, Joe (October 15, 2013). "San Jose pastor helps First United Methodist rise from the ashes". The Mercury News. San Jose, California. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  4. ^ Pfaelzer 2007, p. 232.
  5. ^ a b Voss 2003, p. 13.
  6. ^ a b c d Voss 2003, pp. 13–14.
  7. ^ a b "San Jose apologizes for Chinatown destruction in 1887". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. September 28, 2021. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
  8. ^ Pfaelzer 2007, pp. 232, 237.
  9. ^ a b Pfaelzer 2007, pp. 233–234.
  10. ^ Bandlamudi, Adhiti (June 17, 2021). "San Jose Had 5 Chinatowns. What Happened To Them?". Bay Curious. San Francisco: KQED Inc. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
  11. ^ Pfaelzer 2007, pp. 234–235.
  12. ^ Engel, Claudia (July 30, 2014). "Historic Newspapers". Market Street Chinatown Archaeological Project. Stanford, California: Stanford University Department of Anthropology. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  13. ^ a b c d Voss 2003, p. 14.
  14. ^ Pfaelzer 2007, p. 237.
  15. ^ Carlson, Eric. "San Jose City Hall". Soft Underbelly of San Jose. Boulevards. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
  16. ^ "The 1880s". Five Views: An Ethnic Historic Site Survey for California. Washington, D.C.: National Park Service. November 17, 2004. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  17. ^ a b c d "Woolen Mills Chinatown". San Jose, California: Chinese Historical and Cultural Project. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  18. ^ Michaels, Gina (June 2005). "Peck-Marked Vessels from the San José Market Street Chinatown: A Study of Distribution and Significance". International Journal of Historical Archaeology. 9 (2): 123–134. doi:10.1007/s10761-005-8143-6. S2CID 161761697.
  19. ^ Voss 2003, p. 5.
  20. ^ McAllister, Sue (June 1, 2012). "Artifacts exhibited from a long-buried Market Street Chinatown in San Jose". Mercury News. San Jose, California. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
  21. ^ Duran, Doug; Pizarro, Sal; Chu, Anda (October 6, 2021). "Photos: San Jose holds ceremony to apologize to the Chinese community for past wrongs". The Mercury News. San Jose, California. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
  22. ^ Staff report (May 30, 2001). "Stories of pride over prejudice". Los Altos Town Crier. Los Altos, California. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  23. ^ Praetzellis, Mary; Praetzellis, Adrian (2011). "Cultural Resource Management Archaeology and Heritage Values". Historical Archaeology. 45 (1). Society for Historical Archaeology: 86–100.
  24. ^ a b c Yu, Connie Young (Fall 2016). "Chinatown & Japantown San José" (PDF). Californian. No. 43. Cupertino, California: California History Center & Foundation at De Anza College. pp. 6–12.
  25. ^ Voss 2003, p. 15.
  26. ^ Praetzellis et al. 2008, pp. 40–41.
  27. ^ Praetzellis et al. 2008, p. 41.
  28. ^ "Chinese American Historical Museum". San Jose, California: Chinese Historical and Cultural Project. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
  29. ^ "Chinese American Historical Museum at the Ng Shing Gung". San Jose, California: History San José. June 16, 2023. Retrieved October 22, 2023.

Further reading

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