Exhibits on the Uptown Chinatown

Exhibits

New Oakland Asian Cultural Center exhibit features
recent discoveries about Oakland's old San Pablo Chinatown

ON-SITE MINI DISPLAY

At the site of Oakland's uptown Chinatown, the still-standing 120-year-old storefront currently features a mini-display commemorating these early pioneers.
	Pictures and text currently on view at the old storefront at 1972 San Pablo Ave (at San Pablo & 20th St) panel 1 panel 2 panel 3 panel 4 The San Pablo Avenue Chinatown in 1870: Selections from the Census Some of the men who worked in the quarry or on the railroad Independent Farmers

This site-specific exhibit is complemented by an expanded display now open at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center.

Standing in the doorway of the 120-year-old storefront on the site of the old Chinatown gives a good view of A&I Properties' in-progress restoration work on their fancy historic Victorian across San Pablo, along the west side of Forest City's Uptown Redevelopment project area. The glass reflects the Hotel Arcade at 20th and San Pablo, a hundred-year-old building successfully renovated for senior housing.

Dr. Charles G. Lee (1881-1973), a.k.a. Lee Sew Wing, raised his family in a house on 27th Street north of the old San Pablo Chinatown.

Dr. Lee was the first Chinese American dentist licensed to practice in California. In 1911 he helped found the Oakland lodge of the civil rights group, the Chinese American Citizens Alliance. Dr. Lee also provided the money to construct the civil rights organization’s building.

For this 1891 photo, the Lee family dressed in formal traditional Chinese clothing. The ten-year-old Charles G. Lee stands in the center. This photo appears in Images of America: Oakland’s Chinatown by William Wong (Arcadia Publishing Co., 2004).