The History of Chinatown in Chicago

by Michele Alperin

Overview

The first Chinese came to Chicago after completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, most of whose workers were Chinese, in 1869. The population grew slowly, eventually coalescing in the first Chinatown around Clark Street and later around Cermak Avenue.
Late 1880s to 1905

By 1889, the area around Clark Street included one restaurant, grocery and drug stores, butcher and barber shops, and a cigar factory. By 1905, a Chicago business directory listed five Chinese restaurants in Chinatown out of 40 in Chicago.

1905 to 1912

Chinatown shifted from Clark Street to the near South Side on Cermak (formerly 22nd Street), Archer and Wentworth avenues due to anti-Chinese prejudice, high rents and quarrels between two Chinese community groups.
1926 to Early 1930s

Businesses and associations moved in, and many large Chinese-style buildings went up; by the early 1930s, the neighborhood had expanded slightly and was mostly Chinese.
Early 1927

The city widened Cermak Avenue by 25 feet, pushing storefronts on the south side of the street back 25 feet. Many buildings to the east were torn down.
1950s to 1960s

Communist takeover of mainland China in 1948 brought immigrants, who doubled the Chinese population in Chicago from 7,000 to 14,000. At the same time, construction of the Dan Ryan and Stevenson expressways halved the size of Chinatown.
1970s

The first Chinatown is torn down for a detention center, and the population is relocated to a "north Chinatown" at Argyle and Broadway; the area is now mostly Vietnamese.

Overview