Chinatown was an area roughly bounded by Northeast Ferry, Liberty, State and High streets, in
Salem, Oregon, in which a high concentration of Chinese residents lived during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chinese people came to Salem at first from the
California goldfields, becoming numerous in the 1870s, living in "hovels abandoned by white tenants".
In the 1890s, like other Chinatowns along the
West Coast, the area was considered by non-Asians to be the source of sexually transmitted disease. Around 1905 the city council ordered a block of Chinatown on Liberty Street between Court and State Streets, and some other properties, to be condemned for "health and police concerns".
[ One newspaper said Chinatown's "end" came in 1903. By 1920, there were 72 Chinese residents in the area, down from its peak of 367 in 1890.]
See also
* History of Chinese Americans in the Pacific Northwest
Chinese Americans in the Pacific Northwest have been around since as early as the 1850s. Chinese Americans arrived in the Greater Seattle area in as early as 1851. Oregon had also seen an influx of Chinese Immigrants as early as 1851, because of m ...
References
Salem
Chinese-American culture in Oregon
Chinese-American history
Culture of Salem, Oregon
Geography of Salem, Oregon
History of Salem, Oregon
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