Los Angeles Union Station now stands on the ground where Chinese immigrants formed a vibrant community before being forced out. NBC Los Angeles’ Tracey Leong reports.
An interactive exhibit at Los Angeles Union Station spotlights the painful history behind the original Chinatown that once stood on the site of the modern transportation hub.
The display includes a collection of historical photos, offering a glimpse into LA’s original Chinatown which was established in the 19th century, with nearly 3,000 Chinese immigrants creating a vibrant community with restaurants, herbal shops, offices and grocery stores as well as a safe haven to escape racism.
But that changed at the beginning of the 20th century when Los Angeles officials proposed a plan to consolidate rail services and build Union Station at the site of the original Chinatown, forcing Chinese immigrants to move out of their homes and businesses often without a short notice, according to historians.
“The Chinese [didn’t] have a lot of legal redress, and they [were] pushed out and displaced, with some of them given just mere weeks to get out,” Bill Deverell, the founding director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, said.
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During a time of heightened racial violence and discrimination, building Union Station at the site of the original Chinatown was like killing two birds with one stone.
“Old Chinatown was really considered a slum in the eyes of many non-Chinese,” Li Wi Yang, a curator of Pacific Rim Collections at the Huntington Library, said. “By building a station here not only did you have a centralized train station but you also had the added benefit of getting rid of Chinese communities.”
By the 1930s most of the neighborhood was destroyed, and hundreds of Chinese families were displaced, clearing the way for Union Station which opened in 1939.
“[This exhibit] reminds our Asian American community members that they’ve been here a long time,” Deverell said. “It has not always been pleasant. It’s been difficult. But they are every bit a part of the story as anybody else.”
The descendants of the Chinese immigrants who founded the original Chinatown said they were reminded of their family members’ pain and sacrifices.
Pat Lem, whose grandfather Peter SooHoo Leung led a group of entrepreneurs to work with business allies to build the new Chinatown a mile away from their original home, said she still remembers the challenging times.
“[My grandfather] got those merchants that live right here to invest their money. He got an architect, and they drew the plans for the new Chinatown,” Lem explained while looking at the pictures from the exhibit.
“I just know they worked really hard, and even as a little child, I was very proud of [my grandfather] and my mother,” she said.
Officials behind the exhibit said they hope the new display helps people understand that history can teach people how to move forward in the present.
”This story has stories of both displacement but also resilience, strength and partnership,” Deverell said.
