In the frontier west, the Chinese distrusted Western medicine, while non-Chinese sought the “miraculous” cures of herb doctors. One such doctor was Li Po Tai (1817–1893) from Sam Yup who found gold in Gold Mountain not by slaving in the gold fields but by treating over 100 people daily, Chinese and non-Chinese alike. According to legend, his patients included railroads magnates Leland Stanford and Mark Hopkins. As his prowess for healing spread, people came even from the East Coast to seek his “miraculous” cures. Ever an astute businessman, Li Po Tai advertised his medical prowess with much hyperbole in the English-language press. His office on the southwest corner of Washington and Brenham Place was labeled a sanitarium on an 1882 Sanborn Map. (Originally drawn up to assess fire insurance liability, the Sanborn Maps proved a wealth of historical information concerning the development of urban America between 1867 and 1970.)
His fortune wasn’t entirely based on healing the sick. He also made money investing in real estate. In December 1870, Charles D. Carter’s Real Estate Circulars lauded Li Po Tai as the first “Chinaman” on the continent to invest in real estate, making money out of “white fools.” Carter predicted: “Between his profits from verdant white patients and real estate investments, the Doctor will be among our millionaires.” This prediction was a bit premature. At the time of his death, Li Po Tai’s wealth was estimated to be from $100,000 to $300,000 dollars, somewhat short of a million. Li Po Tai passed away on March 20, 1893, leaving a wife, four sons, five daughters, and two grandchildren. His oldest son and his nephew continued his practice in Los Angeles.
Herb shops came to an abrupt end when the U.S. placed an embargo on products from the People’s Republic of China.
The Chinese World
736-38 Grant Avenue
The Chinese World was originally published in 1891 as the Mon Hing Bo, established by Tong King Chong in support of K’ang Yu-wei’s movement to establish a constitutional monarchy to reform the Ching government. The text of the newspaper was written by hand, then reproduced by the process of stone lithography. After the ’06 quake, the name was changed to Sai Gai Yat Bo (the Chinese World). Using metal type, five men worked eight hours a day setting 4,000 characters to make one edition, then broke up the type to return the characters to their cases. Each case contained 9,000 characters.
The paper continued to propagandize the reform movement from 1898 to 1911, replete with the political intrigue of K’ang’s activities among overseas Chinese, in competition with Sun Yat-sen’s movement to overthrow the Ching government. It was Sun’s Revolutionary Party that succeeded in 1911. After the Revolution of 1911, most of the World’s editorials criticized the corruption of the new government under Chiang Kai Shek’s Kuomintang party and his ineptness in repelling the invasion by Japan. With the ascension of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the paper carried news hoping for improved Sino-American relations.
In its early decades, the Chinese World focused on China, with little local news coverage of the American-born generation. Due to declining readership, an English section was added on December 1, 1949, in an attempt to attract the English-speaking generation. Feature columns included “Chopsticks” by Ken Wong, “H.K.’s Corner” by Henry K. Wong, and “Ed-Lines” by Edward Chew. Subscription rates did not improve. Second- and third-generation Chinese had moved out and no longer were interested in Chinatown. The increasing new immigrant population was of no help. The press stopped and the doors closed in 1969, ending almost seven decades of publication.
The Chinese World.
Soo Yuen Benevolent Association
806 Clay Street
The Soo Yuen Benevolent Association is a clan association comprised of members with the same surname, commonly known as a “family.” For those with less common surnames, several “families” would band together for strength, often using a historical event as the basis for formation. The Soo Yuen Benevolent Association is comprised of three surnames: Louie, Fong, and Kwong.
Before 1919, the brick wall on the Clay Street side of the then-existing building was used for posting announcements, including challenges of rival Tong members and threats of assassination. Hence it became known as the “dead wall.”
Soo Yuen Benevolent Association.
To remodel the building in 1922, the architects Schroepfer and Bolles abandoned the typical post-quake use of eclectic classical elements with Chinese rooflines. Although the building is a corner site, the architects chose not to embellish it with the stereotypical pagoda-style roof. Only a discretely curved fascia can be detected at the corners of the overhang. At night, hundreds of lightbulbs traced the curvilinear arches of the parapet and overhang. Flouting the Chinese architectural forms, the flamboyantly Baroque design enriches the streetscape of Chinatown.
Loong Kong Tien Yee Association
923-32 Grant Avenue
In 1875, Low Fook, Kwant Lok, Chew Show, and Chew Ten signed a deed at 4 Brooklyn Place, on the south side of Sacramento Street between Grant and Stockton Streets (Cowles 1989, 6), and built a temple to consecrate the four heroes who during the period of the Three Kingdoms (220-265 A.D.) swore to defend the populace from the tyranny of the ruling warlords. They were Lew Bei, Quan Yu, Jung Fei, and Chew Wan. The stories of their high morals and heroic deeds of justice have been immortalized in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms for over one and a half millennia. The descendants of the four heroes with family surnames of Lew (translated by immigration officials as Lau, Liu, Lowe, or Low), Quan (Kwan, Kuan, or Quon), Jung (Chang, Cheung, or Jeung), and Chew (Jew, Ju, Joe, or Chao) banded together to form the “Loong Kong Tien Yee Association,” with a worldwide overseas network including San Francisco. This is an example of a clan association formed on the basis of historical events.
Loong Kong Tien Yee Association.
The 1906 quake destroyed the original temple. In 1910, a new building was dedicated at 1034 Stockton Street, although in 1925, the Association moved to its present building at 924 Grant Avenue.
Chinese Telephone Exchange
(Bank of Canton)
743 Washington Street
This building was originally the Chinese Telephone Exchange, begun in the aftermath of the 1906 Earthquake and completed in 1909. The appearance of the pagoda-like structure was in keeping with the drive to create an “Oriental City.” The front entry columns, supporting a beam without capitals and set on a base, is consistent with Chinese architecture, as compared to classical Western architecture, in which the capital and the column are inseparable.
The first phone in Chinatown was installed at the bilingual newspaper office of Mon Kee, owned by Lee Man Teng, who also provided translation services for local businesses. Old-timer Chan Bill, at 86 years old, recalled that as a messenger he was paid ten cents to run back and forth to stores to notify subscribers of incoming calls. Later a switchboard was installed with two phone booths, and immediately there were thirty-four subscribers.
Chinese Telephone Exchange.
Chan Bill, messenger boy, on right.
In 1902, as subscriptions increased, Pacific Telephone & Telegraph purchased a site on 743 Washington Street and constructed the first and only Chinese Telephone Exchange, with living quarters on the second floor. All the operators were men and had multiple responsibilities, including cooking and cleaning. In keeping with the prevailing practice of hiring women at the switchboards, women operators replaced the men in 1919. By the late 1930s, twenty-four operators handled 2,300 subscribers, with 14,000 calls daily. The women spoke every Cantonese sub-dialect and knew the phone numbers of every store, restaurant, and institution by heart. The operators, speaking Chinese while operating America’s latest invention, were a “must-see” novelty for tourists. To this day, old-time Chinese who were born in Chinatown still call the phone “hom seen” (“line”), although presumably this usage will disappear with the growth of cellular phones.
Falling victim to progress, the switchboard gave way to automatic dialing and ceased operation in 1948. Twe
lve years later, in 1960, the building was sold to the Bank of Canton and remodeled. During renovation the exterior wall and wooden entrance doors were replaced entirely with a glass front. Gone with the original doors was the bronze plaque commemorating the site of San Francisco’s first newspaper, the California Star, published by Sam Brannan, another reminder that Chinatown overlays the beginnings of early San Francisco.
Sam Yup Benevolent Association
831-43 Grant Avenue
Originally known as the “Canton Company,” the Sam Yup Benevolent Association, or hui kuan, was founded during the Gold Rush era in 1850 by merchants from the Sam Yup district. By 1854, it had begun to call itself Sam Yup Company, which remains its name today. One of the more important organizations in Chinatown, the Sam Yup Company worked with other district associations to promote better relations with the community at large and fought against unequal treatment of the Chinese. For example, when the Geary Act of 1892 required that Chinese laborers register with the government, Sam Yup Benevolent Association President Chun Ti Chu acted in concert with other members of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Associations of the United States to fight the issue all the way to Supreme Court.
Sam Yup Benevolent Association.
In the 19th century, the Sam Yup Company controlled the import and export businesses of the community. The Sze Yup Company attempted to break this monopoly by boycotting Sam Yup businesses. A major feud between the two groups resulted in the assassination of the Sam Yup leader Fung Ching, known as “Little Pete” (see also Chinese Chamber of Commerce).
The Sam Yup building was remodeled in 1953, at which time the designer applied a pseudo-Chinese canopy onto the face of the top floor above the balcony.
Yan Wo Benevolent Association
945-47 Grant Avenue
This tall, narrow building, built in 1908, follows the typical post-1906 design for interior lots. The building is complete with a storefront on the first floor, a staircase to the upper floors, and the association’s club rooms on the top floors. Small curved eaves project over the openings of the second floor, and lights top the rail posts. The Yan Wo Benevolent Association was established in 1852 as the Sun-On Company and is one of the original four district associations (hui kuan) founded during the Gold Rush. Originally, the Yan Wo Benevolent Association was located in Happy Valley (now Second and Market Streets), suggesting the Chinese population in the early decades of the city’s history was geographically dispersed.
Yan Wo Benevolent Association.
NORTHERN GRANT AVENUE
Jackson Street to Broadway
The northern end of Jackson Street to Broadway on Dupont (Grant) developed into a busy market-place for Western-style groceries and meat, inter-mingled with old world traditions of live fish and poultry. After the ’06 quake, the markets on “Fish Alley” had relocated here. These markets not only served the Chinese but also attracted the Italian housewives from adjacent North Beach who, like the Chinese themselves, demanded hand-selected merchandise, killed and dressed before their eyes. The meat markets also supplied wholesale meat to the Gloria, San Francisco, and Molinari sausage companies. It was politic to hire Italians drivers to deliver the meat to these factories. On delivery days, wooden cages of live ducks and chickens from Petaluma ranchers lined the street, and butchers could be seen unloading front- and hindquarters of beef onto their shoulders from the trucks of Johnson & Johnson, Allen & Sons, and Moffit from Butcher Town, formerly located at Fairfax and Third Street near Hunters Point. Gow Gong people from Namhoi (one of the three districts of Sam Yup hui kuan) dominated the meat markets, while Chung Sahn people dominated the fish and poultry markets.
The Mandarin Theatre
1021 Grant Avenue
The Mandarin Theatre—completed June 1924 by architect A.A. Antin—was marveled at by one reporter as “absolutely modern in perfect accord with Chinese ideas of decorative art.” Today, it is a shadow of its former self. Since the 1980s, it has been converted into a shopping area occupied by multiple concessions. Current occupants, local residents, and tourists have no clue that here, once upon a time, Cantonese opera played a major role in the entertainment world of Chinatown.
Opera fans would wait until 3 p.m., when the theaters would distribute handbills with photos of their favorite stars promoting the evening’s performance. Performances were given every evening from 7 p.m. to 12 p.m. The popularity of Cantonese Opera faded, however, with the decline of the older generations. Adding Chinese movies to the bill did not forestall this decline, and ultimately the Mandarin was sold and converted into business concessions. The Great Star Theatre, formerly the Great China, survived thanks to the Baht Wo Association from Hong Kong, which began to give occasional performances in 1980.
Cantonese opera has a long history in San Francisco, dating back to the Gold Rush. The first performance, presented at the American Theatre in 1852, was not only for the Chinese community but also for white audiences, prominently advertised in the Alta California newspaper. While the dialogue was unintelligible to the American audience, the stage props, the costumes of the numerous performers, and some very “agile and dexterous ground and lofty tumbling” were considered “well worth seeing.” On December 23, 1852, the Tonk Tong Opera Company, under the management of Norman Assing, Tong Achik, and Likeon, erected their own imported theater, described by one observer as a “curious looking pagoda.”
In the 19th century, a visit to a Chinese theater was on the “must see” list for tourists. However, the novelty began to wear off as the anti-Chinese mood began to escalate. Condescending writers described the music of the orchestra as the sound of a dozen jackasses braying and claimed the singers’ screeching pierced the ears. Today, thanks to the Baht Wo Association, the popularity of Cantonese opera continues in the community.
The Mandarin Theatre.
City Lights Bookstore
261 Columbus Avenue
City Lights Bookstore, at the edge of North Beach, was the center of 1950s “Beat” culture. Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter Martin started the paperback store and named it City Lights after the Charlie Chaplin film. The store became a meeting place for local poets and writers, and the publisher of many of their works. The publication of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, and Other Poems (1956) brought national attention when Ferlinghetti and his bookstore manager Shig Murao were arrested for selling obscene and lewd material.
Jack Kerouac was another noted author associated with the literary scene. Adler Place, flanking City Lights on the south side, was renamed Jack Kerouac Alley in his honor.
City Lights Bookstore.
Pacific Avenue
On the 700 block of Pacific Avenue is the Nanking Garage, a reminder that the street was occupied predominately by garages in the 1920s. Two other garages, plus the Blue Bird Cab garage on the south side, were demolished to make way for the first-ever housing project in the community. On the north side were the Nanking and new Tai Ping Garages.
In 1885, a major portion of the southwest corner of Grant and Pacific was notorious for prostitution. Bordering the west side of the property was Sullivan Alley and to its south was Baker’s Alley, called “Mein Bow Hohng” (“Bread Alley”) by the Chinese because a bakery was located there.
At the turn of the 20th century, the New Century Beverage Company stood on 820 Pacific. One of its major products was “Belfast Sparkling Cider,” sold only to Chinese communities. It was concocted especially for Chinese consumption during the days of prohibition. Stories abound as to the origin of the “cider” but, according to local legend, during prohibition, the Chinese requested that the company produce a drink with the color of whiskey, to be placed on banquet tables in order to disguise the real product. This story is borne out by Richard Campodonico, grandson of the owner of the beverage company, who remembers his grandfather adding flavoring to seltzer water to produce the drink. (S.J. Mercury, 7/19/06). To this day, “Belfast Sparkling Cider” remains popular in Chinese American communities and nowhere
else.
An advertsement for Belfast Sparkling Cider.
STOCKTON STREET
In 1887, the Chinese consulate was opened in the former Pioche residence, on 806 Stockton. M. Pioche was a well-known French businessman with the firm Pioche, Bayengue & Cle. The first Chinese mission was located at the northeast corner of Stockton and Sacramento in 1854. Today, within the western boundary of Stockton Street lies the complex political, social, and cultural milieu that is Chinatown. Organizations reflecting overseas Chinese affairs, like the Chinese Six Companies, the Kong Chow Temple, the Hop Wo district association, the Kuomintang political party, and the Chung Wah Chinese Language School, stand juxtaposed with organizations symbolizing assimilation, like the Chinese American Citizen Alliance, the Chinese Presbyterian Church, the Methodist Episcopalian Church, and the former St. Mary’s Church. All played decisive roles in the 19th century and early 20th century Chinatown.
Stockton Street was rezoned in the 1980s as a major shopping corridor, reflecting the merchandising methods of the newer immigrants. The Chinese food markets are heavily concentrated from Washington to Broadway. The myriad of Chinese food differs little from the days of the Gold Rush except for a greater variety. The same food, with its strange looks and odd smells, still elicits strong reactions from tourists.
San Francisco Chinatown Page 8