One Hundred and Fifty Years of
Loading...Scroll to ContinuePhiladelphia’s Chinatown has served as a safe haven to Asian Americans since its founding 150 years ago. A haven for immigrants and their descendants to uphold heritage and pass on centuries of tradition; and a haven from the racism, bigotry, and violence these communities have experienced since first immigrating to this country.
Group portrait of men, two women, and a child, outside of the First Chinese Baptist Church at 1006 Race Street, circa 1920.Historical Society of Pennsylvania In Philadelphia, that tradition includes resistance. For decades, Philly’s Chinatown has faced one big development project after another, including the proposed Sixers arena.
1870s to 1930s
The seeds of community
The first Chinese migrants built a flourishing Chinatown on Ninth and Race — made up of lodgings, laundries, restaurants, and churches — that became a gathering point for the diasporic community all over the region.
If you value this kind of journalism, please subscribe.
In its first decades, Chinatown was predominantly inhabited by men without their families because of the Page Act of 1875, legislation that banned Chinese women from immigrating to the U.S. But a few years later, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act banned entry for men as well.
Before these restrictive federal immigration laws came into effect, Philadelphia's Chinese community was mainly composed of male workers escaping racism and violence on the West Coast.
Trade card containing illustrations depicting racist caricatures of Chinese people. Newspaper clippings from 1885-1886.Library Company of Philadelphia, Newspapers.com Chinese migrants were viewed initially by Philadelphians — and portrayed by newspapers — as strange but industrious workers.
Illustration published in an 1876 issue of the Graphic, a British weekly illustrated newspaper. Newspaper clippings from 1881.Library Company of Philadelphia, Newspapers.com By the 1880s and ‘90s, curiosity evolved into an open hostility that was consistent with national sentiment, as the Chinese population in Philadelphia ballooned from a dozen individuals in 1870 to about 700 in 1890. Newspaper reports during this period were permeated with arrests of Chinese workers and raids of establishments.
Photograph showing Chinese men being loaded into patrol wagons during the Chinatown gambling raids from 1944. Philadelphia's Police Department stopped deploying a special Chinatown detail in the mid-20s, but as evidenced by this photograph, raids continued to persist.Historical Society of Pennsylvania Many residents lived in the southwest corner of Ninth and Race Streets in a residential block sensationally labeled the “House of a Hundred Rooms” by newspapers.
AdvertisementIn 1923, however, Bell Telephone Co. completed the purchase of the full block and subsequently demolished all the buildings. Bell Telephone, now Verizon, went on to construct a high-rise building here — one of the first recorded instances of a large development displacing Chinese residents in Philadelphia’s Chinatown.
Newspapers.com Another project in the area was the Broad-Ridge Spur, built in the 1920s. One of the very first Broad Street Line branches, the Broad-Ridge Spur connected Eighth Street station and Vine station (today’s Chinatown station), located at Eighth and Race Streets.
Aerial shot of the Ridge-Eighth Street Subway, later known as the Broad-Ridge Spur, under construction, from 1930.Historical Society of Pennsylvania Unlike the privately funded Bell Telephone Tower purchase, eminent domain — the government’s power to take residents’ property for public use — was used to demolish blocks of housing. Residents received notice to vacate their homes while the landowners were given market-rate compensation for their properties, though this rate was dictated to them and difficult to appeal.
1930s to 40s
Soon to be a memory?
Hemmed in by the new Bell Telephone and Ridge Avenue developments, Chinese residents gradually moved northwest from Ninth and Race. There had been roughly a thousand Chinese workers living in the area up until this point, most of them still single men. But by the 1930s, only about 300 remained.
Three elderly men sit in the Chinatown section of Philadelphia, c. 1930sPhiladelphia Evening Bulletin / Temple University Libraries In 1949, about one block away from where Chinatown residents lived, the city commenced the first widening of Vine Street to facilitate better traffic flow across the city. Vine Street, once a typical one-way street, was to be expanded to 10 lanes.
Philadelphia City Archive The city claimed blocks of buildings south of Vine through eminent domain, displacing numerous non-Chinese residents. The widening tore down half a block between Vine and Winter Streets. The mayor championed the project, and threatened that Chinatown would be razed next. Newspaper columnists predicted that “Chinatown would soon be a memory.”
Newspapers.com 1940s to 60s
Flourishing, Despite Eminent Domain
Changes in Chinese exclusion laws and the abolishment of immigration quotas led to a new wave of Chinese immigrants. Unlike previous migrants the newer arrivals to Philadelphia's Chinatown were educated or skilled workers — and this time, they were accompanied by their families.
A family among other spectators in the Chinatown section of Philadelphia on Oct. 17, 1971.Philadelphia Evening Bulletin / Temple University Libraries By the 1960s, there were 85 families and 800 people living in Chinatown. Its boundaries expanded north of Vine Street, especially around the Holy Redeemer Church and School — a staple of the Chinatown community since its founding in 1941.
Exterior of the Holy Redeemer Church and School, the first Chinese Catholic church in the United States.Historical Society of Pennsylvania While some parts of Chinatown evolved into a more family-oriented neighborhood, other parts were not. The area east of Chinatown, around Franklin Square, was commonly referred to as “Skid Row” because of its shelters and bars that catered to mostly non-Chinese unhoused men. Franklin Square was one of the few green spaces available to Chinatown, but was rarely frequented by Chinese residents.
An elderly person walks through Franklin Sq. at 6th & Vine Sts. with all his possessions in a bag in Philadelphia on June 5, 1969.Philadelphia Evening Bulletin / Temple University Libraries Franklin Square's desolate state captured the attention of city agencies such as the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority and the City Planning Commission. Flush with federal money specifically earmarked for urban renewal efforts, these agencies led the effort to demolish entire blocks of housing, churches, and social services around Franklin Square. The city condemned the area as "blighted" and claimed eminent domain over its entirety.
Cartoon on the project in Skid Row – also known as The Tenderloin – from a 1958 Philadelphia Inquirer editorial.Newspapers.com One new development at Franklin Square was the now-former Police Headquarters, better known as the Roundhouse. The site for the Roundhouse — bounded between Race, Seventh, Cherry, and Eighth Streets — was chosen only after Society Hill residents opposed its initially proposed location in their neighborhood.
Four-story Police Administration Building rises at Eighth and Race Streets.Newspapers.com, Philadelphia Evening Bulletin / Temple University Libraries Nearly everything between Ninth and Eighth Streets and between Vine and Arch Streets would be demolished in 1978 and used for the Center City Commuter Connection, which connected Suburban Station and the Market East Station.
Chinatown protesters protesting the Center City Commuter Tunnel, from 1978.Philadelphia Evening Bulletin / Temple University Libraries 
Visitors to City Council supported the Center City Commuter Tunnel, which Council approved in Philadelphia on March 31, 1977.Philadelphia Evening Bulletin / Temple University Libraries Stripped of almost all of its former residents, Skid Row was transformed into “Independent Mall Unit 4 Center City Redevelopment Area” — a sea of parking lots and institutional structures.
Westward view of Center City from the Ben Franklin Bridge, in foreground Franklin Square, the Metropolitan Hospital, and the Roundhouse. Photo made on Feb. 4, 1973.Philadelphia Evening Bulletin / Temple University Libraries One of the displaced residents was Cecilia Yep, who lived in a four-bedroom rowhouse at 832 Race St. Yep received a notice of eminent domain in March 1960. It wasn’t until later that Yep learned the city wanted to tear down her home for the Center City Commuter Connection.
“At the time, I was unfamiliar with eminent domain and I couldn’t understand, having owned a property, that they could just evict me,” Yep said.
AdvertisementBut she was too busy taking care of her terminally ill husband and three young children to give the notice attention, instead telling the city, “If you want me to leave, you have to find me a place to go.”
For 22 years, Yep and her children stayed in that home as the city slowly tore down their neighbors’ houses, piling up “dirt as high as the house.” By 1980, Yep’s home was the last one standing — and to this day is referred to as the Chinatown Alamo. The city finally found her a comparable four-bedroom home in 1982.
“The next day, they tore down the house,” Yep recalled. “I was in shock.”
1960s to 80s
Growing, organizing, mobilizing
Despite losing blocks of housing and storefronts on its eastern border, Chinatown continued to experience an influx of new immigrants and residents in the ‘70s and ‘80s and expanded its boundaries south to Arch Street.
A seamstress from Hong Kong works in the Goodimade Mfg. Company in Philadelphia in 1974.Philadelphia Evening Bulletin / Temple University Libraries But Holy Redeemer Church and School was at risk in 1966, when a proposal to convert already expanded Vine Street into an interstate expressway threatened to gobble up a staple of the community. Initial designs of the Vine Street Expressway also included off-ramps on Ninth Street and between 11th and 12th Streets, effectively encircling Chinatown between highways.
First grade Chinese children at the Holy Redeemer School in Philadelphia on March 22, 1977. Tony Wong; Bryan Chin; Ivan Chin; Dawn Iu; Sister Mary Ignatius; Irene Louie.Philadelphia Evening Bulletin / Temple University Libraries The Chinatown community — mainly led by Yep — rallied around Holy Redeemer. In 1966, she gathered about 250 community members at the On Leong Merchants Association to discuss how to counter plans proposed by government agencies that would seriously impact the community. Many of these community members went on to found the preservation-focused nonprofit Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC) that same year.
Flyer from the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation promoting neighborhood...Historical Society of Pennsylvania 
...rally and town meeting the Vine Street Expressway and Market Street development projects, from 1973.Historical Society of Pennsylvania "They've already taken the businesses on Ninth Street, and now they want to take the church and the school, too," Yep said at the meeting. "What's left?”
Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power, and Chicano movements, the Vine Street Expressway galvanized opposition.
City planners and community groups negotiated to save the church and school. The negotiated compromise did away with the proposed off-ramps and resulted in a depressed highway that had a much smaller footprint than the original design.
Demonstrators hold up their signs as Lynne M. Abraham from the Redevelopment Authority and James Martin of the Old Philadelphia Development Corp. testify at a hearing at City Hall in Philadelphia on May 9, 1973.Philadelphia Evening Bulletin / Temple University Libraries Even then, the smaller Vine Street Expressway split the neighborhood from Holy Redeemer — leaving the northern part of the neighborhood surrounding the church and school isolated— and also took out the remaining blocks between Vine and Winter.
Yellow Seeds was a newspaper for the Asian community in Philadelphia. These images show the cover and a detail of the September 1973 edition which reports on a community protest of demolition at Tenth and Vine Streets relating to the Vine Street Expressway construction.Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Vine Street Expressway was the first instance of Chinatown politically organizing, establishing a tradition of community resistance. The elders in the community enlisted younger community members to lead the neighborhood's organizing because of their greater language access and political literacy.
In the aftermath of the development projects of the ‘60s, Yep and PCDC fought for concessions from the city that helped fund three affordable housing projects in Chinatown, built between 1982 and 1984.
The Gallery, currently known as the Fashion District, was first proposed in the 1970s to be built just a block away from Chinatown’s southern boundary of Arch Street. At the time, Chinatown residents were more concerned with the Gallery’s proposed parking garages. But after negotiating with the city, the project’s original plans were downsized.
AdvertisementNine years after the Gallery was built, the Pennsylvania Convention Center was approved for funding. The project displaced 200 Chinese residents when construction started in 1991, as well as seven Chinese businesses on 11th and Arch Streets. In the aftermath of the razing, the city agreed to grant PCDC land on east Ninth Street from Race to Cherry Street to compensate those businesses. This was the same land the city had claimed by eminent domain, where the Chinatown Alamo once stood.
Newspaper clipping from The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 24th, 1992.Newspapers.com 1990s & 2000s
“No stadium In Chinatown”
Soon after construction started on the Convention Center, a new project tried to find a home in Chinatown. The Federal Bureau of Prisons proposed in 1993 to build a 750-bed detention center at Eighth and Vine Streets — right next to Holy Redeemer. Chinatown community members picked up their picket signs once again, and managed to win the battle. In 1994, the bureau decided to build the detention center closer to the Federal Court. In its initially proposed location stands the PCDC-developed affordable housing complex Hing Wah Yuen, next door to Sing Wah Yuen, another PCDC housing development.
Newspaper clipping from The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 22nd, 1993.Newspapers.com Ask Chinatown community members today about the most significant fight in their history, and many would point to the Phillies stadium proposed in 2000.
The 15-acre, 44,000-seat ballpark was proposed to be built atop 10 blocks at 12th and Vine Streets by 2003, razing numerous buildings. Its biggest advocate was then-Mayor John Street. The threat to the historic neighborhood’s existence united the community.
Then-City Councilmember Jim Kenney as a protester displays a sign expressing her opposition to a new Phillies stadium in Chinatown, from 2000.Jennifer Midberry / Inquirer The elders in the community, who predominantly spoke Cantonese or Mandarin, and the younger generations, who predominantly spoke English, came together to oppose the stadium. The elders decided all of the protesters needed to wear matching T-shirts (the design of which continued to be used as the community battled subsequent development projects) and collected the money to design and print them. The elders suggested a strike across all of Chinatown, shutting down each business, so everyone could march to City Hall in opposition to the stadium.
“What I found was that the elders had so much soul and heart,” Debbie Wei, cofounder of Asian Americans United, told The Inquirer last year. “They were tapped into the business owners. The English-speaking kids, we could have never pulled that off.”
The Phillies stadium ended up being built in South Philly.
Soon after Chinatown fought off the Phillies stadium, they were met with another battle: a Foxwoods Casino, proposed in 2008.
Chinatown residents were outraged at the prospect of a 3,000-slot machine casino being built on their doorstep, at The Gallery at Market East — less than a block from Chinatown. A casino would not only hurt businesses and change the character of the community, but it would also exacerbate a gambling problem that already existed within the community, residents said.
Residents of Chinatown rally against a plan for a casino in their neighborhood, from 2008.John Costello / Inquirer For months, hundreds of Chinatown community members staged protests, collected petition signatures and marched to City Hall hearings. The familiar “No stadium in Chinatown” T-shirts from 2000 crossed out “stadium” and wrote “casino” on top.
Today
Another threat in a long history
Despite decades of big development hemming in Chinatown, the neighborhood continues to thrive as a central, bustling hub for the region's Asian American and Pacific Islanders community. Chinatown's demographics have expanded to include families with origins from numerous countries in addition to China, such as Vietnam and Indonesia.
The neighborhood itself has physically grown outside its initial borders, expanding several blocks north of Vine Street and west toward Broad Street, a testament to the community’s vitality.
If you value this kind of journalism, please subscribe.
Today, a new project has emerged. The Sixers announced plans last year to build a $1.55 billion basketball arena a block from Chinatown’s southern boundary on Arch Street.
Community members and their allies say the arena, which will abut Chinatown at Cuthbert Street, is yet another development in a long history of projects in and around the neighborhood’s borders that will cause gentrification and displacement in the neighborhood.
T-shirts for sale during a No Arena in Chinatown protest at 10th and Arch Streets in Philadelphia, on Sunday, Dec. 25.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer The T-shirts created in the baseball stadium fight are back, this time with “ARENA” scrawled over “casino” and “stadium.”
As is its tradition, Chinatown is fighting back.
Methodology
The Inquirer georeferenced historical insurance maps, land use maps and aerial photography from the Penn State University Libraries, Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access to create the maps used to illustrate historical developments. These include: Sanborn Map Company’s 1916 Insurance maps of Philadelphia, 1942 Philadelphia Land Use Map, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission historical aerials from 1959, 1970, and 1999, and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency’s aerial from 2018.
Historical boundaries of Chinatown are estimates and were determined by consulting archival sources, census records, and interviews with residents.
Staff Contributors
- Design & Development: Jasen Lo, Sam Morris
- Reporting: Massarah Mikati, Jasen Lo, Michaelle Bond
- Research: Jasen Lo, Ryan Briggs
- Photo: Rachel Molenda, Jasen Lo
- Editing: Sam Morris, Sabrina Vourvoulias, Dain Saint, Suzette Moyer
- Social Editing: Erin Gavle
- Quality Assurance: Ksenia Belyaeva
- Copy Editing: Brian Leighton
Advertisement