Chinatown was a neighborhood in the city of Newark in Essex County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. It was an

ethnic enclave In sociology, an ethnic enclave is a geographic area with high ethnic concentration, characteristic cultural identity, and economic activity. The term is usually used to refer to either a residential area or a workspace with a high concentration ...

with a large percentage of

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

immigrants, centered along Mulberry Street from 1875 and remaining on some scale for nearly one hundred years.

Description

The center of the neighborhood was directly east of the Government Center neighborhood, in the area of Mulberry Street between Elm and Lafayette. The first Chinese in Newark came from the community in neighboring Belleville, home of the East Coast's first Chinese community. The first Chinese businesses appeared in Newark in the second half of the 19th century and in the early part of the 20th century. By the 1920s, the small area had a Chinese population of over 3000. In 1910, a small lane with housing and shopping was built called Mulberry Arcade, connecting Mulberry Street and Columbia Street between Lafayette and Green Streets. In the 1920s, recurring federal

opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

raids disrupted the community, causing many to move to more peaceful places. Gang leader

Sai Wing Mock Sai Wing Mock (aka Mock Duck) (1879 – July 23, 1941) was a Chinese-American criminal and leader of the Hip Sing Tong, which replaced the On Leong Tong as the dominant Chinese-American Tong (organization), Tong in Manhattan Chinatown in the ear ...

was shot in an attempt on his life in front of his establishment on Mulberry. Despite an attempt to revive the neighborhood decades later, the Mulberry Arcade (the center of Chinatown) was removed in the 1950s. A 21st century project in the area is called

Mulberry Commons Mulberry Commons is an urban square and public park in Newark, New Jersey that opened in 2019. The Mulberry Commons Pedestrian Bridge broke ground in 2023. Background It was first proposed in 2005 to be the centerpiece of of the city's Down ...

. Today there is barely any sign that a Chinatown existed in the neighborhood, and only a small Chinese population remains. There is a Chinese restaurant on Lafayette Street and another on Green St. Nearby, the Sumei Multidisciplinary Arts Center on Liberty Street, in an old factory in the Chinatown neighborhood, exhibits arts from various world cultures.

References

External links

Sumei Multidisciplanary Center1910 map showing Chinese population in Chinatown
{{coord, 40.734771, -74.168100, display=title Chinese-American culture in New Jersey Ethnic enclaves in New Jersey Neighborhoods in Newark, New Jersey Newark Populated places established in 1875 1875 establishments in New Jersey

Description

See also

References

External links