Browse Items (40 total)
- Collection: Asian Americans in Spokane
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Chinese Restaurant Matchbook Covers
Chinese noodle restaurants had existed in Spokane since at least the 1910s. By 1935, Chinese food in Spokane appeared to have gained a level of acceptance as an October 26, 1935 article in the Spokesman-Review described the Chinese offerings at the…
A Proper Burial Is Group's Goal
This article describes ongoing efforts by the Hip Sing Association to provide for the proper burial of members of the Chinese community. It highlights the decades-long role the group has played in supporting community members in a time of need and…
Hip Sing Association Membership Book
This directory for the Spokane area Hip Sing Association lists individual members along with their membership dues. One of the enduring functions of the Hip Sing organization was to ensure proper burial for its members by helping to fund transport of…
Demolition Fades Memories Further
The Boulevard Building at 333 West Spokane Falls Boulevard was the last building once bordering Trent Alley between Bernard and Washington. During the days of Trent Alley, the building housed the Northwestern Hotel and Hand Laundry. The hotel was run…
Noodle Grill Menu
Menu for the Noodle Grill on 512 West Main in Spokane, Washington. The restaurant operated on W. Main from 1936 until 1971, when it moved to a new location in the East Central neighborhood, which was labelled Spokane's International District as part…
Lotus Block
The Lotus Block was constructed after the 1889 fire that burned down much of Spokane. According to the August 8, 1889 issue of the Spokane Falls Review, the fire "cleaned out a number of little frame buildings" occupied by Chinese boarders and…
Chinatown's "Little One" Roams without Playmates
This article is about Tony Eng, identified by report Dorothy Powers as "China Alley's only Chinese child." The article suggests that the Chinese community in Trent Alley is dying out due to the age of its storekeepers and the fact that many of the…
Oriental Bath and Laundry Storefront
One of the economic niches filled by Chinese and Japanese Americans in the United States was the hand laundry business. The April 9, 1892 issue of the Spokesman-Review includes an article on a meeting of the Anti-Chinese League in which Alderman Ambs…
Logan Hotel
The Logan Hotel was constructed in 1890. By 1913, it was run by a trio of Japanese American partners identified as Maeguchi, Nihonmatsu, and Tejima in this photograph by Ryosuke Akashi. During the 1910s, Japanese businessmen established themselves in…
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Trent Alley, 1950
Trent Alley is typically associated with three blocks between Trent Avenue (now Spokane Falls Boulevard) and Main Avenue. This map depicts those blocks with the eastern edge at the top of the map. The eastern-most block, where Trent Alley forms an…
Sanborn Map of Spokane Block Containing Chinese Businesses and Boarding Houses, 1889
Prior to the existence of Trent Alley, many Chinese residents lived and worked north of Front Street (now Spokane Falls Boulevard) in the eastern half of what as of 2024 is Riverfront Park. The structures toward the top of the map (Stevens Street)…
Witness Attestation for Sue Ah Yen
The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was passed to curb immigrant laborers from China from entering the United States. Part of this law denied reentry to Chinese laborers leaving the United States. As a result, Chinese merchants, like Sue Ah Yen needed to…
Gew Ah Yen Certificate of Residence
The passage of the 14th Amendment provided all persons born in the United States birthright citizenship, a right confirmed by the 1898 Supreme Court Decision United States v. Wong Kim Ark. Despite this ruling, United States citizens married to…
Wing Wo Chinese Medicine Co. Storefront on West Sprague Avenue
The Wing Wo Chinese Medicine Company in Spokane was established in 1905 by Hoy Gar (also known as Hoy Sam). Hoy was born in Portland, Oregon in 1869 and started his medicine shop on 126 1/2 Wall Street in 1905.The store likely operated on the second…
Joe and Kon Leong at Lunar New Year Celebration at the Noodle Grill
As with Western New Year celebrations, food and drink are an important part of Lunar New Year festivities. In Spokane, the Leong family frequently served a banquet consisting of traditional Cantonese dishes to the Chinese community to commemorate the…
Logan Hotel
The Logan Hotel and the various ground floor businesses from the southeast corner of Stevens Street and Main Avenue. This photograph, likely taken during the late-1950s based on the billboard advertising the Edsel, was taken from the same angle as…
Takami Family Seated in Logan Hotel
This photograph of the Takami family includes members of three generations of the family. Starting from the back-left going clockwise, the individuals photographed are Ikuta (Harry) Takami, Linda Takami, Tsuruyo (Mary) Takami, and Taki Takami. Ikuta…
Hoy Gar Funeral
Hoy Gar, owner of the Wing Wo Chinese Medicine Company in Spokane, Washington, died on February 27, 1926 from an appendicitis. A popular figure within both Spokane's Chinese American community and in Spokane at large, Hoy's funeral drew hundreds of…
Wing Wo Chinese Medicine Co. and Citizen's Savings and Loan Society Storefront on 126 1/2 Wall Street
The Wing Wo Chinese Medicine Company in Spokane was established in 1905 by Hoy Gar (also known as Hoy Sam). Hoy was born in Portland, Oregon in 1869 and started his medicine shop on 126 1/2 Wall Street in 1905.The store likely operated on the second…
Noodle Grill Staff
In this photograph, the Noodle Grill wait staff stands next to the booths in the store on 512 West Main Avenue. In an interview, Lotus Leong, the daughter of Noodle Grill founder Joe Leong, recalled the Noodle Grill's interior. According to Leong,…
Kenneth Kato in Trent Alley
Kenneth Kato's family lived in the Northwestern Hotel and Hand Laundry on 333 Trent Boulevard when he was born in 1949. The back of the building opened up onto Trent Alley, which served as an entrance to the hotel on the second floor run by Kato's…
Kato Family in Trent Alley
The group photograph taken in Trent Alley includes Kenneth Kato's grandparents Testumu (back row left) and Ume Terao (front center), his mother (left of Ume Terao), and Kenneth (right of Ume Terao). The Northwestern Hotel and Hand Laundry is behind…
Hisako Kato on the Fire Escape of the Northwestern Hotel
Trent Alley was never known for its abundant plant life. This photograph of the back fire escape of the Northwestern Hotel and Hand Laundry captures a large hanging vine that grew in the portion of the alley where the Davenport Grand currently…
Grant Street Methodist Church
A large group of people gathered for a group portrait in front of the Grant Street Methodist Church on Fifth Avenue and Grant Street. According to the church's' history published in 1967, the photograph was taken for a 35th anniversary celebration on…
Japanese Methodist Mission Kindergarten Portrait
The Japanese Methodist Mission in Spokane was founded in 1902 above the home of Reverend Genshichi Tsuruta. Initially, the mission served young men migrating to Spokane for work or school, but by 1910, when the church ran services out of a building…
Meejosee Wong, Yut Sun Hoy, and Sandy Wong in Wing Wo Chinese Medicine Company
Yut Sun Hoy ran the Wing Wo Chinese Medicine Company after the death of his uncle Hoy Sam in 1926. In 1953, Yut Sun moved the store to 917 West Sprague Avenue, which is currently the block containing the Bing Crosby Theater and the Knitting Factory.…
New Chinese Republic Parade Float
According to the 1910 census, the Chinese American population in Spokane County was 263. Many in this community lived near Trent Avenue (now Spokane Falls Boulevard) between Browne Street and Howard Street. The population held enough recognition that…
Tetsuzo Terao Near His Home on Cowley Street
Many Japanese Americans living in Spokane who could afford a house in the first half of the 20th century, purchased homes on the lower South Hill east of Division Street. These neighborhoods were amongst those where families of color were not barred…
Downtown Spokane During the Expo '74 Renovation
Aerial photograph of the Spokane riverfront amidst the renovations in preparation for Expo '74. Along the south end of Trent Avenue, the rubble from a building at the corner of Stevens Street and Trent Avenue is visible. This likely includes what…
Sandy Wong and Virginia Fox in the Chinese Gardens Restaurant
The Chinese Gardens restaurant opened on 611 West Sprague Avenue in 1948 by John (Sheong) Chan. This is a photograph is of waitress Virginia Fox and Sandy Wong, whose uncle, Y.S. Hoy, had a financial interest in the business. The Chinese Gardens was…
Chinese Gardens Menu
As of 2024, the Chinese Gardens is one of the oldest Chinese restaurants still operating in Spokane. Started in 1948, the restaurant was one of a couple open on West Sprague at the time. The restaurant operated on the second floor near the corner of…
Letterhead Envelopes from Chan family papers
In spite of their names, both the New York Cafe and Golden Wheel Restaurant were Chinese restaurants in Ellensburg and Yakima respectively. The Golden Wheel Restaurant is still in business as of 2025. The New York Cafe occupied the ground level of a…
Nisei Basketball Team Members
By the 1930s, the first American-born generation of Japanese Americans began to come of age. This generation were called Nisei, which translates to second generation (the immigrant generation were called Issei). This portrait is of a group of…
Noodle Grill on East Sprague Avenue
This illustration and caption from the Spokesman-Review describes the new home for the Noodle Grill, a popular Chinese Restaurant in Spokane that operated since the 1930s. The new location on East Sprague is indicative of the movement of Chinese…
"Welcome" Sign Greets Hip Sing Tong
This image and caption form the Spokesman-Review depicts Trent Alley decorated for an upcoming meeting of Hip Sing officials from across the United States. The Hip Sing Association was one of a number of organizations that played an important role in…
Spokane Chinese Aid War Effort
Attitudes toward Chinese Americans began to shift during World War II. As this article from the Spokesman-Review indicates, Americans of Chinese descent were seen as allies in the fight against Japan. For many Chinese Americans, support for…
Was She Abducted?
One of the most prominent Chinese American families in Spokane during the late-19th and early-20th century was the Ah Yen family. While local newspaper coverage of the Ah Yens reflects a measure of esteem for the prominent family, many articles are…
Keith Oka Drawing at His Desk
Keith Oka was born in Okayama, Japan in 1916. He immigrated to the United States with his mother, Rin, in 1919 and graduated from Broadway High School in Seattle in 1935. Oka worked as a commercial artist for many years serving as the art director…
Ready for Hip Sing Conference
The Spokane chapter of the Hip Sing Association hosted two national conferences at its headquarters in Trent Alley in 1924 and 1935. An article in the September 3, 1935 Spokesman-Review notes that the 1935 convention was smaller than the one in 1924…