Providence Chinatown | |
---|---|
Neighborhood of Providence | |
Location of Chinatown was once near Westminster Street | |
Coordinates: 41°49′25″N71°25′20″W / 41.82361°N 71.42222°W | |
Country | |
State | Rhode Island |
County | Providence County |
City | Providence, Rhode Island |
ZIP Code | 02903 |
Area code(s) | Area code 401 |
The US city of Providence, Rhode Island was once home to at least two Chinatowns, with the first on Burrill Street in the 1890s until 1901 and then around Empire Street around the late 1890s in the southern section of the city. According to another source, the Burrill Street Chinatown was burned to the ground in 1901 by a "mysterious fire" caused by a kerosene stove. [1]
The Empire Street Chinatown was considered one of the "last of the old Chinatowns" in a grouping that included Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore. The extension of Empire Street, proposed in 1914 (according to the Providence Sunday Journal) and completed around 1951 doomed the Chinatown, and all of the buildings were demolished including the former headquarters of local Chinese societies. The enclave was once located next to the Empire Theatre and the Central Baptist Church. [2]
Providence's Chinatown was built in the late 1800s, and disappeared sometime after 1951 according to a historical record of Patrolman Robert Chin, who is notable for being the country's first Chinese-American police officer. He "was raised at 136 Summer Street during the final years of the neighborhood's Chinatown settlement. His parents operated the Far East Noodle Company, which supplied local Chinese restaurants." [3]
Another source[ which? ] said that Chinatown began as a community of Chinese grocery stores, restaurants, boarding houses, and laundries around the early 1890s along Burrill Street where the Blue Cross/Blue Shield building stands today. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, a law which disfavored the Chinese race caused the decline of the Chinatown as future immigrants from China were prevented from coming causing the population of the Chinese race within the city to dwindle, along with the rest of the nation, in what was known as the "Yellow Peril." The neighborhood was forced to relocate to nearby Empire Street between Washington and Westminster Streets as development occurred, causing much of the original Burrill Street Chinatown to be demolished.
The Providence Sunday Journal coverage of the destruction of Chinatown showed contradictory perspectives. A February 16, 1913 article showed hostility towards the Chinese as it stated that the community "... young white girls [were] hanging out at the Chop Suey houses, there subject to the supposedly 'unhealthy' attentions of womanless Chinese men, as well as the discovery of opium and gambling in the neighborhood...." Then on December 13, 1914, the newspaper article "... spoke of the need to extend Empire Street (rather than Snow Street, as had originally been planned) through to Weybosset Street, with the attendant widening that mysteriously required demolition of every building in Chinatown at that time, and which left that block of Empire Street conspicuously wider than its other two blocks...." [4]
Another historical record indicated that Chinese-white couples were prevalent, during an era when interracial couples were generally shunned. The account references an address that was located near a Chinese laundry. [5]
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This article contains a list of the Chinatowns, which are either officially designated neighborhoods or historically important, in the United States. Historically speaking, many of these Chinatowns were formed in the 1800s Chinese diaspora and have served as ethnic Chinese enclaves.
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The U.S. city of Baltimore, Maryland is home to a small Chinatown. Historically, Baltimore had at least two districts that were called "Chinatown" where the first one existed on the 200 block of Marion Street during the 1880s. A second and current location is at the 300 block of Park Ave., which was dominated by laundries and restaurants. The initial Chinese population came because of the transcontinental railroad, however, the Chinese population never exceeded 400 as of 1941. During segregation, Chinese children were classified as "white" and went to the white schools. Chinatown was largely gone by the First World War due to urban renewal. Although Chinatown was largely spared from the riots of the 1960s, most of the Chinese residents moved to the suburbs. As of 2009, the area still shows signs of blight and does not have a Chinese arch. As of 2017, the area has become an “immigration hub” for Ethiopian people.. In 2018, a mural of a Chinese dragon and an African lion was painted to signify the past as a Chinatown and the present as an African neighborhood. A night market in September 2018 marked the first Asian celebration of the area to an area that was “long forgotten and neglected”.
Asiatown, also spelled AsiaTown and formerly known as Chinatown, is a Chinatown located in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. Chinese people, brought to the country as railroad workers, established the area in the 1860s. The area became known as Chinatown in the 1920s, and was then centered at Rockwell Avenue and E. 22nd Street. Large numbers of non-Chinese people from Asia settled in the area in the 1960s and 1970s, leading to the enclave's expansion eastward. The expanded enclave was named Asiatown in 2006, with that portion on Rockwell Avenue often being referred to as "Old Chinatown" or "Historic Chinatown".
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