San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...

has been home to five Chinatowns that existed until the 1930s: * First Market Street Chinatown (1866–1870) * Vine Street Chinatown (1870–1872) * Second Market Street Chinatown, also known as Plaza Chinatown (1872–1887) * Woolen Mills Chinatown (1887–1902) * Heinlenville, also known as the Sixth Street Chinatown (1887–1931) The two largest Chinatowns were the Second Market Street Chinatown and Heinlenville.

Market Street Chinatown

San Jose's largest Chinatown was founded in the 1860s around the intersection of Market and San Fernando Streets. It burned down in a mysterious fire in 1870, but began to be re-established two years later. Known as the "Market Street Chinatown", it was home to about 1,400 people at its peak. The area at the time was subject to controversy as many whites often complained to the city council about the area as "bothersome". In 1887, the area was burned to the ground with many Chinese evicted from the area as the anti-Chinese public sentiment grew. Many artifacts from the Market Street Chinatown were excavated during an urban renewal project to build the Fairmont Hotel and Silicon Valley Financial Center. The City of San Jose formally apologized for the arson in 2021. The Circle of Palms Plaza lies within the location of the old Market Street Chinatown.

Heinlenville

German immigrant John Heinlen, farmer and businessman, planned a six-block Chinatown with brick structures with water and pipes in the area of Sixth Street and Cleveland Street in 1887, to the dismay of the non-Chinese public and caused public outrage. Heinlen had himself experienced anti-German sentiment, thus sympathized with the Chinese immigrant community. The area was then known as "Heinlenville" and contained a variety of merchants, barbers, traditional doctors, Chinese herbal medicine, and the Ng Shing Gung temple. The area was surrounded by Little Italy and co-existed harmoniously, but then dwindled in the 1920s as the younger generations sought careers outside the area and with a lack of new Chinese coming in due to the

Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplo ...

, the area lost almost all of its Chinese population. At the time, an existing

Japantown is a common name for Japanese communities in cities and towns outside Japan. Alternatively, a Japantown may be called J-town, Little Tokyo or , the first two being common names for Japantown, San Francisco, Japantown, San Jose and Little ...

nearby was emptied due to America's entry into

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, but was repopulated after the

internment of Japanese Americans Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

. In 1991, the Ng Shing Gung temple was reconstructed in History Park in San Jose and is now a museum containing artifacts from Heinlenville.

Market Street Chinatown

Heinlenville

See also

References

Further reading