chinatown

the bibliographic record for this image is incorrect. see an alternative version of this image posted here by the NYPL. that image has the correct record info. www.flickr.com/photos/nypl/3110615890

Luv.. luv... luv this!!!

                CHINESE MERCHANTS BEGIN 11-DAY OPENING                     Association Decorates Mott and                         Pell Streets in Honor of New                             Home—Welcome 2,000. "The eleven-day celebration of the new home and headquarters of the Chinese Merchants' Association, at 41 Mott Street, began yesterday [September 30, 1920], and last night Chinatown was ablaze with red, white and blue lights. About 2,000 Chinese merchants from all parts of the country are expected to attend, and many of them have already arrived. Sightseers and Chinese visitors filled the streets around the new building, from which came strange music until late in the night. "The new clubhouse will be formally opened at noon today, but preliminary exercises began yesterday afternoon. More than 500 members and their guests gathered in the assembly hall in the upper floor of the building, where speeches were made by Gong Wah and Yee H. Kee, officers of the association, and by several of the visiting merchants. Last night the guests were feasted, and there was more speechmaking." – The New York Times      

"The story behind the story" – what really went on behind all the flag-waving at the Chinese Merchants' Association" (opinion lede by Pixel Wrangler) This was the Chinatown headquarters of On Leong, also known as the Chinese Merchants Association at 41 Mott Street, New York City, not to be confused with the Merchants’ Association building, built in 1950 at 2150 Rockwell Ave. The On Leong tong was one of two brutal criminal syndicates that warred for control of Chinatown in the first decade of the new century. The other rival syndicate was Hip Sing Tong. "At stake were the payouts from the many gambling and opium dens as well as the brothels that made Chinatown a major lure not just for other Chinese immigrants but also for white New Yorkers, too." "In recent years the Tong has been linked to the Ghost Shadows street gang led by Wing Yeung Chan. Currently, there are over 30,000 registered On Leong members, the majority of them with a commercial or industrial background." [1] Read more, as well as see a reprint of this photograph in the New York Daily News excerpt of "Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice, Money and Murder in New York's Chinatown," by Scott D. Seligman. (2016)

Thanks, Pixel Wrangler ! We will add some of this information to our records.

www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60873817

this is mott st.

Lucky_dog, Thanks for the information. According to the Oct. 15, 1911 edition of the New York Times the Young China Association was located at 12 Mott Street (see link below). According to the article, the flag flying to the left of the US flag was a new design for the Chinese revolutionary movement. A similar negative in LC’s Bain Collection is inscribed “No. 1 10/23/11.” This negative is inscribed “No. 2 10/23” with the year illegible but it is safe to assume that this photo was made in October 1911. As further confirmation of the Mott Street address, the 1915 Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac (second link below) indicates that the Morning Star Mission, seen to the right, ran a kindergarten at 10 Mott Street. query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9803E... books.google.com/books?id=BBYrAAAAYAAJ&dq=Brooklyn+Da...

and here is another view of this street in 1942 on color film from the Charles W. Cushman photograph collection. webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/results/detail.do?query=... in that image, the two red buildings in the center of the photo are No. 10, and 12 Mott St. within 30 years, most of the buildings had their ornamental wrought iron terraces replaced with fire escapes.

Also, noted from about two years before: US LOC Call Number LC-B22- 344-1A[P&P] Entitled (erroneously): "Mission house where Elsie Sigel was murdered" and... US LOC Call Number LOT 7178 [item] [P&P] Entitled (also highly doubtful): "Mission where Elsie Sigel met her slayer, [Chinatown, New York City, New York] Photograph shows exterior view of a building with lodging above the Portland Restaurant "Chinese American chop suey" on the first floor where Elsie Sigel apparently met Leon Ling, a waiter, in Chinatown, New York City, New York." Both LOC photos are dated 1909 and show the exact same site (one seems to be a crop of the other, with different textual info). However, historically that information contain in the LOC with regards to the Elsie Sigel murder is woefully wrong and should be disregarded. *** Sidebar *** Elsie Sigel frequented the mission at 10 Mott Street as a way to rendezvous with Chu Gain (another Chinese man), who was either the owner or manager of the Port Arthur Restaurant (across the street at 9 Mott Street). There is no evidence that the suspect, Leon Ling, ever frequented those locations and evidence was that Miss Sigel was murdered further uptown on 40th streed (almost three miles away). She may have been killed by a jealous Leon Ling when he found out about his rival, Chu Gain. The case caused quite a stir when the public realized that a white woman of good societal standing had freely romanced not just one, but two separate "Chinamen." At the time, Ling was the cause of a nationwide manhunt that resulted in police across the US to capture and detain just about any "Americanized" Asian men in repeated cases of mistaken identity. Ultimately, Ling was never caught, and it is suspected that he had help to leave the country. Some say that help came from those in the Chinese revolutionary movement as he had been, at one point, a member in the "Chinese Empire Reform Association" another sibling political organization with similar aims. Ling was reportedly seen disembarking a tramp steamer in Hong Kong and was never heard from again. The case was never solve.