Manuscripts

Los Angeles Chinatown

Description: Photographs and photographic postcards of Old Chinatown and New Chinatown, newsletters and photographs of the Chinese Presbyterian Church, and other items related to Los Angeles Chinatown, including newspaper clippings, events programs from the 1920s-1940s, a promotional photograph album from the 1930s, and promotional material from the 1980s.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1910s-1988
Call number: mssSoohood
Provenance: Gift of Gregory David SooHoo and Debbie F. Lew SooHoo, July 2021.; Gift of Patricia Ann Lem, September 2022.
Restrictions: Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Los Angeles Chinatown oversize material

Manuscripts

Right of way plans for property at 900 N. Broadway, a Harry Quillen photograph of the Fong Lun Association grand opening in 1951, Los Angeles Times issues from 1933 and 1971, a button collection, and Chinese artwork.

mssSoohood

Los Angeles Chinatown

Visual Materials

Photograph of a drawing of a street and storefronts in Old Chinatown, Los Angeles, California.

photCL Pierce 09900

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A. Los Angeles (Chinatown)

Visual Materials

The Roger S. Hong Collection spans the years 1936 to 2001 and consists primarily of drawings by Roger Hong, from the 1960s to 2001, but also includes earlier drawings of Los Angeles's New Chinatown (1936 to 1940s) by architects Erle Webster & Adrian Wilson. In the mid-1930s, all of Old Chinatown was torn down to make way for Union Station. Many of the displaced families and businesses went to the nearby 900 block of North Broadway and developed New Chinatown. The drawings by Webster & Wilson show the development of this historic area of Los Angeles through survey records, street plans and drawings for buildings for Y.C. Hong. The collection also includes Roger Hong's proposed revitalization plans for Chinatown, 1979 to 2001. These drawings and Hong's other professional work in this collection are primarily for commercial projects. One exception is the Y.C. Hong residence, a modern home designed while Hong was starting his professional career at Buff & Hensman and Associates, and constructed in 1969. The collection also includes samplings of Hong's professional work done while at various firms and in his capacity as private architectural consultant in the 1990s. Hong's childhood artwork and work done while he was a student at the University of Southern California are also part of the collection, including his Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity scrapbooks, 1960 to 1962.

archHong

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David and Dora SooHoo family papers

Manuscripts

Primarily material related to David W. SooHoo (1911-1970), Dora SooHoo (1913-2001), and their families, including family documents, photographs, and artifacts. The collection also includes school notebooks, yearbooks, and other items related to David SooHoo's upbringing as a second-generation Chinese American in Los Angeles. David SooHoo served as director of the Los Angeles Mei Wah Girls' Drum Corps for many years, and the collection contains photographs, clippings, and correspondence related to the group, particularly around the World War II era. Also included are photographs, plans, and promotional material featuring Old Chinatown and New Chinatown, Chinese Presbyterian Church newsletters and anniversary booklets, and other items representing aspects of the Chinese American community in Los Angeles. The collection also contains written and printed Chinese documents that functioned as receipts, business records, essays, menus, and educational texts.

mssSoohood

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Views of Los Angeles' Old Chinatown and vicinity

Visual Materials

Images of Old Chinatown include street scenes, buildings, residents and visitors, and Chinese participants in La Fiesta de las Flores parade of 1902. There are two interior views of a restaurant, and a church. Some images have street addresses and business names known to be in Old Chinatown; others may be in the vicinity.

Subseries 1

Chinatown, Los Angeles

Visual Materials

Elevated view of one-story and two-story adobe buildings in the Old Chinatown neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles, California, with horse-drawn wagons in the dirt courtyard. Presumably the buildings were located near or in the Calle de los Negros (also known as "Nigger Alley").

photCL 555

Los Angeles Chinatown

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