Pittsburgh’s Chinatown might have been small, but it was an energetic force in Downtown during the early 1900s. One Pittsburgh organization is fighting to keep its history alive.
Chinese grocery stores, gift shops and restaurants once lined Second and Third avenues between Ross and Grant streets. Chinese immigrants — primarily from Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong — met at a quaint park between the two streets to discuss news and play mah-jongg.
“It was seen as the Chinese Wall Street of the Tri-State area,” said Marian Lien, president of the board of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans.
But construction of the Boulevard of the Allies in the 1920s squeezed out the Chinese community, eventually destroying Pittsburgh’s Chinatown. All that’s left now is one restaurant: Chinatown Inn.
To commemorate this history, OCA Pittsburgh is raising money for a bronze plaque and an October celebration. The organization’s GoFundMe, which started May 25, has raised about $2,700 of its $7,000 goal.
The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission recognized Chinatown with a state historical marker in March. Pittsburgh Chinatown was one of 23 markers approved out of 39 applications, joining the nearly 2,300 blue signs with gold letters scattered throughout the state.
Other new markers in Pittsburgh include salutes to artist Andy Warhol; jazz pianist Earl “Fatha” Hines, who was the first African American on a radio broadcast; and mystery writer Mary Ella Roberts Rinehart.
Ms. Lien said while OCA was elated to receive the designation, it was “bittersweet” in many ways. OCA applied four separate times over a 12-year period before being approved. Ms. Lien said two of the board members who helped start the process — Karen Yee and Dorothy Green — died before seeing the finished product.
“At the time I was resentful because some of the denial comments that came our way were things like, ‘There aren’t enough significant or important individuals listed associated with that space.’ Well I’m sorry but that’s a bit of a racist remark,” Ms. Lien said. “All the way to, there’s already a Chinatown and it’s in Philadelphia, as if Pennsylvania could only handle one Chinatown.”
“Even though there isn’t a thriving [community] — in the way of the 1920s version of Chinatown in Pittsburgh — it deserves to have this historical marker to remind the rest of us that it, too, contributed to the Pittsburgh experience,” she added.
Pittsburgh’s Chinatown started as a stop on the road to California during the 1849 Gold Rush. In the late 1800s, about 300 Chinese laborers were brought in to work at the Beaver Falls Cutlery Factory to break a strike. Many of them eventually moved to Pittsburgh.
Two fraternal societies — the On Leong Labor and Merchants Association and the Hip Sing Association — fought for control over Chinatown, known locally as the Tong Wars. By 1959, the Post-Gazette reported, fewer than a handful of families were left in the neighborhood. Chinatown Inn is located in the former On Leong Labor and Merchants Association building.
Because the historical and museum commission approved Chinatown as a landmark during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Lien said, OCA Pittsburgh was more focused on raising money for free clinics and helping business owners apply for federal aid. So it started a GoFundMe in the hope that members and nonmembers would help out.
Out of the $7,000 the organization hopes to raise, $5,000 will go toward the plaque and $2,000 is earmarked for the celebration.
Ms. Lien said she envisions the celebration as a “day full of joy,” possibly with speakers or public art to mark the end of a pandemic that has been particularly difficult for many Asian Americans.
“To be Asian was like walking around with a target on your back,” she said.
“We hope that everyone comes out to help us celebrate. It felt a little bit like the city or maybe the state was ashamed of us, and that’s why there was that attitude to our applications,” she said. “I hope the city does come out to help us celebrate it big and prove that I’m wrong about that.”
Rebecca Johnson: rjohnson@post-gazette.com and Twitter @rebeccapaigejo
First Published: July 11, 2021, 4:00 a.m.