Old Chinatown, San Francisco – recorded in postcards
Posted: September 30th, 2014 | 3 Comments »Mentioned Lisa See’s new book China Dolls the other day, set in San Francisco’s Chinatown before the war. Then came across this set of postcards the other day – can’t date them and probably sent post-war but the images are, I think, 1930s….The accompanying text is quite fun, dipping into Thomas Burke-like imagery at points, “Oriental lanterns cast a mellow glow over the shifting throngs” etc. But they are rather nice all the same.
BTW 1: these pictures are credited to Stanley Plitz, who’s company issued postcards in California from the 1930s to 1950s and were considered extremely high quality at the time
BTW 2: I’ve posted before on the 1885 map of San Francisco Chinatown, the district’s Chinese theatres, a newish guide to Chinatown’s architecture, and the wonderful Chinese telephone exchange (again pictured below)
Click to enlarge
Grant Avenue, Chinatown
Chinatown & Street Scene at Night, Chinatown
“Kong Chow” Temple & Bulletin of Latest News
Chinese Six companies’ Building & Chinese Telephone Exchange
Business District & Joss House-Tong Buildings, Waverly Place
Street scene & Chinese children
Interior, Chinese Telephone Exchange & Reading the Bulletin Boards
Chinese fortune teller & Mandarin Theatre
Interior, Tin How Temple (Joss House) & Picturesque costumes
Street Scene
These are truly delightful, Paul. Lovely to cast our thoughts back to what it was like in those days. The telephone exchange is a marvel.
I have reminiscences of some of these scenes as a young boy in Chinatown in Montreal.
Regards,
David
You probably knew this already but the old Chinese Hospital building in SF was demolished last year.
thanks for that info – got a post out of it! – http://www.chinarhyming.com/2014/10/10/san-francisco-chinese-hospital-demolition/