Chinatown, Salt Lake City

This article is about the old Chinatown in Salt Lake City. For the newer Chinatown, see South Salt Lake, Utah.

Neighborhood in Utah, United States

Salt Lake City Chinatown

Neighborhood

Men lounging outside saloon & Chinese laundry, Salt Lake City, 1910

Coordinates: 40°45′0″N 111°53′0″W﻿ / ﻿40.75000°N 111.88333°W﻿ / 40.75000; -111.88333
Country|  United States
State| Utah
City| Salt Lake City

Historically, the city of Salt Lake City, Utah, had a Chinatown that was located in a section called "Plum Alley" that contained a Chinese population that worked in the mining camps and the transcontinental railroad. The first Chinese peoples came in the 1860s and had formed a historical Chinatown in a section called "Plum Alley" on Second South Street which lasted until 1952. The area had a network of laundromats, restaurants and oriental specialty shops.

While most residents kept within their micro-community, the residents did take part in some local Salt Lake City traditions. According to the tourist sign located at the former Chinatown, the Salt Lake City's New Year's Day Parade featured a "200 foot long Chinese dragon."[1] According to KUED, around 1,800 Chinese lived here with "... a network of laundries, restaurants, Oriental specialty shops..." and "... gambling joints, providing the social outlet for many of the lonely residents..." who were bachelors, but Plum Alley was eventually razed "... and was replaced by Regent Street Parking Terrace".[2]

Josie Manwill of Brigham Young University notes the effects of anti-Chinese sentiment and the Chinese Exclusion Act but attributes the decline of Salt Lake City's Chinatown primarily to the Great Depression.[3]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Plum Alley Today". Archived from the original on January 18, 2008. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
2. ^ "The Hidden History of Plum Alley, Salt Lake's Chinatown" Archived 2013-04-15 at archive.today, University of Utah: KUED 7
3. ^ Manwill, Josie. "Salt Lake's Forgotten Chinatown". Intermountain Histories. Retrieved August 26, 2021.

## Further reading

[edit]

* (1994) "The Chinese in Utah" article in the Utah History Encyclopedia. The article was written by Don C. Conley and the Encyclopedia was published by the University of Utah Press. ISBN 9780874804256. Archived from the original on November 3, 2022 and retrieved on April 9, 2024.

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Chinatowns in the United States

* Atlanta
* Austin
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* West Argyle Street
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* Richardson
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* Malden, Massachusetts
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* Montville, Connecticut
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* Edison
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* Squirrel Hill
* Portland, Maine
* Portland, Oregon
* Quincy
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* San Francisco Chinatown
* Oakland
* Richmond District
* Sunset District
* San Jose
* Seattle-Tacoma
* Seattle
* Tacoma
* Spokane, Washington
* Washington, D.C.
* Rockville, Maryland
* Winnemucca, Nevada

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