The first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived around the 1849 Gold Rush. As the Chinese population moved eastward over the next few decades, along with the trans continental railroad, Chicago’s first Chinese community emerged downtown, around Clark and West Van Buren Streets. But as Chicago’s population swelled from 500,000 to over 1 million between 1880 and 1890, the growing Chinese community needed elbow room and a place to call its own. Many moved to the near southwest portion of the city, around South Wentworth Avenue and Cermak Road, establishing what has today become Chicago’s thriving Chinatown, a densely packed, 30-block area with 27,000 residents and over 400 businesses. A prominent building in the Chinatown streetscape has a colorful history. In the 1920s, a group of Chinese community leaders known as the On Leong decided that a
... read more
