743 Washington Street
Chinatown
San Francisco’s Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside Asia. Established in the 1840s, It plays an extremely important part in the history of San Francisco and the history of the Chinese diaspora. Chinatown is the most densely populated neighborhood in the city and one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the United States. It is also one of the more working class neighborhoods of San Francisco. Chinatown has more visitors annually than the Golden Gate Bridge.
The Chinese Telephone Exchange sits at 793 Washington. In 1891, the first public telephone pay station was installed in Chinatown. In 1894, a small switchboard was set up to serve the patrons of the phone system. People were often asked for by name rather than by number, so telephone operators had to memorize and know each patron by name. This made telephone numbers unnecessary, which was important since the Chinatown community felt it was rude to refer to people by numbers. Operators also knew the address and occupations of patrons so they could distinguish between two people with the same name. In addition, they had to speak five Chinese dialects as well as English.
Technology changed, and switchboards were no longer needed. The Bank of Canton bought and restored the building in 1960.
Chinatown has an incredibly rich history and there are hundreds of books out there about it, but two that I find especially interesting are: “The Barbary Plague” by Marilyn Chase and “Genthe’s Photographs of San Francisco’s Old Chinatown” by Arnold Genthe and John Kuo Wei Tchen.
Love these colorful shots. I would be in tourist heaven. 🙂
Very cool pics and history! My parents visited San Francisco for the first time a few months ago and fell in love! I want to go:)!
Beth
oh I have not been there in so very long – I need to get to SF!!
i love these kind of shots
I love Chinatown. Especially, for baked goods.
Yay, I’m commenting from work. Thank you for changing the form for me.
My daughter just informed me that DimSum is really just dumplings…..whatever they are, they look fun. I want to try them.
One of my fondest memories of SF was Chinatown.
I really appreciate the information along with the pictures. I had no idea Chinatown gets more visitors than the Golden Gate Bridge. That’s impressive.
Be well.