Chinatown, Newark

Newark's Chinatown was an ethnic enclave with a large percentage of Chinese immigrants, centered along Market Street in Newark, New Jersey from 1875 and remaining on some scale for nearly one hundred years. The center of the neighborhood was directly east of the Government Center neighborhood. The first Chinese businesses appeared in Newark in the second half of the 19th century and in the early part of the 20th century. By the 1920s, the small area had a Chinese population of over 3000.^[1]

In 1910, a small lane with housing and shopping was built called Mulberry Arcade, connecting Mulberry Street and Columbia Street between Lafayette and Green Streets. In the 1920s, recurring federal opium raids^[2] disrupted the community, causing many to move to more peaceful places. Despite an attempt to revive the neighborhood decades later, the Mulberry Arcade (the center of Chinatown) was removed in the 1950s.

Today there is barely any sign that a Chinatown existed in the neighborhood, and only a small Chinese population even in the surrounding areas. There is a single Chinese restaurant on Lafayette Street. Nearby, the Sumei Multidisciplinary Arts Center on Liberty Street, in an old factory in the Chinatown neighborhood, exhibits arts from various world cultures.

References

1. ^ "When Newark Had a Chinatown" [1] l
2. ^ 163 CHINESE SEIZED IN 16 OPIUM RAIDS; "50 Imported Federal Agents Ply Axes and Pikes in Drive on Newark's Chinatown. GET $50,000 NARCOTIC GEAR Use Fire Trucks and Spotlights to Surprise Quarry in Alleged Centre of Contraband Traffic."

External links

• Sumei Multidisciplanary Center
• When Newark Had a Chinatown
• 1910 map showing Chinese population in Chinatown

Coordinates: 40°44′05″N 74°10′05″W / 40.734771°N 74.168100°W / 40.734771; -74.168100