日志
1880唐人街
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“B1177 in Chinatown, S. F. , Cal.” c. 1880. Photograph by the Taber Photo company of San Francisco (from the collections of the California State Library and the Chinese Historical Society of America). In this view north on Dupont St. toward the T-intersection with Commercial Street, a procession moves south toward Sacramento Street.
Two striking photos presumably taken by Isaiah West Taber from perhaps two different over-watch positions on Dupont Street in old San Francisco Chinatown captured bird’s-eye views of a parade moving south on old Chinatown’s main street ca. 1880. Archives seldom identify the street as Dupont St.
Fortunately for the viewer, prominent business signage appears in the center of the frame of photo B 1177 which reads “714-½ Sun Kam Wah & Co. China & Japan Bazaar”. Students of the street layout of pre-1906 Chinatown know that the Sun Kam Wah store had operated at 714-½ Dupont from more than a quarter-century before the disaster, selling “clothing and fancy goods” (according to the New City Annual Directory of 1875, published by the D.M. Bishop & Co.), from its store at the northeast corner of the intersection of Dupont and Commercial Streets. A horse stands visibly on Commercial which even today is the small side street that forms a T-intersection with Dupont (and runs parallel to and between Sacramento and Clay Streets).
Mostly unnoticed for decades (but not here), one can identify the balconies and small banner-signage of Hang Far Low (杏花樓) the legendary restaurant which operated from 711 Dupont on the west side of the street and at the top of the T-intersection, and which would resume operations after the great quake and fire for another 55 years in approximately the same location. In the left foreground of the parade photo, people can be seen viewing the parade from the balconies of the restaurant’s southerly adjacent building occupied by Fook Yuen & Co. at 711 Dupont St.
In the upper-left quadrant of photo B1177, and where the tail-end of the procession is crossing the intersection with Clay Street, one can see in the distance (by image-enlargement), the balconies of another legendary restaurant, Woey Sin Low (會仙樓), on the east side of Dupont and a couple of lots north of the intersection of Dupont and Clay Streets.
The absence of women on the street level is palpable in what was essentially a bachelor society. However, they can be seen notably at the top of the photo – viewing the parade by peering somewhat dangerously over the corner parapet of the large general merchandise building at the southeast corner of the Dupont and Commercial Streets intersection. A servant appears to be holding a sun umbrella for the merchant wives and daughters. The large building in the center of the photo was occupied in 1880 by the Wa Cheung & Co. clothing manufacturer located at 714 Dupont and the provisions supplier, Fou Chong & Co. at 712 Dupont. Still more spectators can be seen standing on the window ledges of the building’s second floor.
As a further delight for the eye, Taber apparently took a second photograph of the same parade from his perch above Dupont Street.
1880
Fortunately for the viewer, prominent business signage appears in the center of the frame of photo B 1177 which reads “714-½ Sun Kam Wah & Co. China & Japan Bazaar”. Students of the street layout of pre-1906 Chinatown know that the Sun Kam Wah store had operated at 714-½ Dupont from more than a quarter-century before the disaster, selling “clothing and fancy goods” (according to the New City Annual Directory of 1875, published by the D.M. Bishop & Co.), from its store at the northeast corner of the intersection of Dupont and Commercial Streets. A horse stands visibly on Commercial which even today is the small side street that forms a T-intersection with Dupont (and runs parallel to and between Sacramento and Clay Streets).
Mostly unnoticed for decades (but not here), one can identify the balconies and small banner-signage of Hang Far Low (杏花樓) the legendary restaurant which operated from 711 Dupont on the west side of the street and at the top of the T-intersection, and which would resume operations after the great quake and fire for another 55 years in approximately the same location. In the left foreground of the parade photo, people can be seen viewing the parade from the balconies of the restaurant’s southerly adjacent building occupied by Fook Yuen & Co. at 711 Dupont St.
In the upper-left quadrant of photo B1177, and where the tail-end of the procession is crossing the intersection with Clay Street, one can see in the distance (by image-enlargement), the balconies of another legendary restaurant, Woey Sin Low (會仙樓), on the east side of Dupont and a couple of lots north of the intersection of Dupont and Clay Streets.
The absence of women on the street level is palpable in what was essentially a bachelor society. However, they can be seen notably at the top of the photo – viewing the parade by peering somewhat dangerously over the corner parapet of the large general merchandise building at the southeast corner of the Dupont and Commercial Streets intersection. A servant appears to be holding a sun umbrella for the merchant wives and daughters. The large building in the center of the photo was occupied in 1880 by the Wa Cheung & Co. clothing manufacturer located at 714 Dupont and the provisions supplier, Fou Chong & Co. at 712 Dupont. Still more spectators can be seen standing on the window ledges of the building’s second floor.
As a further delight for the eye, Taber apparently took a second photograph of the same parade from his perch above Dupont Street.
1880
