Postcard - Los Angeles, California - Chinatown - Gin Ling Way Street Scene - Night Time - 1967 - Color Photo - Used

Color photo postcard entitled, "Chinatown, Los Angeles, California."  Back reads, "The fantastic towers and pagodas along Gin Ling Way are just part of this enchanting settlement of shops crowded with art treasures of the Orient and Chinese restaurants serving delicately flavored foods."  Postmarked July, 1967 from Flagstaff, Arizona and sent to an addressee in North Olmstead, Ohio.  Color photo by Frank M. Thomas.  L-3 - Western Publishing & Novelty Co., Los Angeles, California; Natural Color Reproduction.

Chinatown in Los Angeles was founded in the last 1800's and was orginally located less than a mile from its current location.  Between 1852 and 1890 a community of over 3,000 Chinese people flourished between El Pueblo Plaza and Old Arcadia Street, stretching eastward across Alameda Street.  Reaching its heyday from 1890-1910, Chinatown grew to include 15 streets and alleys containing 200 buildings.  It was large enough to boast a Chinese opera theatre, three temples, its own newspaper and a telephone exchange.  From the early 1910's, Chinatown began to decline due to gambling houses, opium dens and fierce tong warfare.  Eventually the entire area was sold and resold, as entrepreneurs and town developers fought over usage of the area.  After 30 years of continued decay, a Supreme Court ruling approved condemnaton of the entire area to allow for the construction of the new major rail terminal Union Station.

Old Chinatown was almost completely demolished, but a remnant persisted into the early 1950s located between Union Station and the Old Plaza.  A narrow, one-block street known as Ferguson Alley ran between the Plaza and Alameda and was the location of a Buddhist temple and several businesses.  Chinatown was designed by Hollywood film set designers and a "Chinese-style" movie prop was later donated by the legendary film director Cecil B. DeMille to give Chinatown an exotic atmosphere.  The main streets running through new Chinatown are Broadway, Spring Street and Hill Street.  Chinatown is located directly north of downtown Los Angeles, between Dodger Stadium and the Los Angeles Civic Center. 

Classic North American postcard; great collectible with potential for appreciation.