Why Central Plaza matters.
Central Plaza is a pioneering Chinese American commercial square where Chinatown's community-built character meets pedestrian lanes, Asian Eclectic architecture and a civic center created after the destruction of Los Angeles's original Chinese district.
Set between North Broadway and Hill Street near College Street and just steps from Alpine Recreation Center, the plaza occupies the nucleus of New Chinatown within a low-rise network of commercial buildings and private pedestrian streets. Architects Erle Webster and Adrian Wilson arranged the complex around an open central court, flanking it with tile roofs, upturned eaves, balconies and decorative architectural elements derived from Chinese forms. Gin Ling Way carries movement through the ensemble between its principal gates, with smaller lanes branching among storefronts and upper-level spaces around the court. Neon lighting became another physical component of the complex, outlining rooflines and storefronts and strengthening the plaza's nighttime presence during its mid-century commercial peak. The result is a compact pedestrian district whose court, lanes, gates, balconies, tiled roofs and neon preserve the physical centerpiece of the Chinese American community that built New Chinatown in the late 1930s.
What defines Central Plaza.
Central Plaza is best known for forming the heart of New Chinatown, among the earliest planned Chinese American commercial developments in the United States and a project owned and developed by Chinese Americans themselves. Old Chinatown had occupied territory near Alameda and Los Angeles streets before plans for Union Station displaced residents and businesses during the 1930s, intensifying the search for a permanent replacement. Peter Soo Hoo Sr., an Old Chinatown native and USC graduate who became the first Chinese American engineer employed by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, emerged as the central organizer behind a new development controlled by the community. Soo Hoo worked with Santa Fe Railway land agent Herbert Lapham to secure former railroad property north of the old district, and an organizational meeting on April 22, 1937 brought together Soo Hoo, Chinese consul T. K. Chang, Lee Wah Shew, L. W. Fon and other community figures. Twenty-eight founders formed the original group behind the venture, with Chinese American merchants pooling capital to acquire land and develop the project during an era when discriminatory property restrictions sharply constrained Chinese ownership. The Los Angeles Chinatown Project Association, later the Los Angeles Chinatown Corporation, commissioned Webster and Wilson to devise the master plan as a pedestrian commercial center built around a central court. Eighteen units were operating by June 1, 1938, and Central Plaza formally opened on June 25 with California Governor Frank Merriam and other civic figures participating in the ceremonies. New Chinatown emerged from that opening as a Chinese American-controlled economic center built in direct response to the displacement of the earlier community.
A second historical strand developed through the people and institutions that occupied the new complex and extended its civic importance beyond commerce. Attorney You Chung Hong commissioned an office building and adjoining restaurant complex during the first wave of expansion, establishing his practice within Central Plaza after becoming the first Chinese American admitted to practice law in California. Hong specialized in immigration law and Chinese American civil rights, assisting thousands of clients during a career spanning nearly six decades. He also commissioned the Broadway entrance known as the East Gate or Gate of Maternal Virtues in honor of his mother, with its first lighting ceremony held during New Chinatown's first anniversary in 1939. The Hill Street West Gate belonged to the original 1938 development and incorporated 150-year-old camphor wood from China; Chinese consul T. K. Chang supplied its four-character inscription translated as βCooperate to Achieve.β οΏΌ Los Angeles designated the West and East gates Historic-Cultural Monuments 825 and 826 in 2005. Central Plaza later accumulated another layer of public commemoration through monuments to Chinese and Chinese American figures, including the first North American bronze statue of Bruce Lee. Those successive additions turned a Depression-era commercial undertaking into a concentrated physical archive of community leadership, immigration advocacy and Chinese American cultural presence in Los Angeles.
How Central Plaza fits.
Central Plaza works as the anchor for a Chinatown outing connecting the surviving fabric of Old Chinatown, a nineteenth-century benevolent association and the religious traditions carried into Los Angeles by later Chinese migration.
Begin at Chinese American Museum, housed in the historic Garnier Building at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, among the oldest surviving structures associated with the city's original Chinatown. The institution grew from 1984 discussions between the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California and El Pueblo concerning preservation of the Garnier Building, followed by a founding-donor campaign in 1985 and formation of the Friends of the Chinese American Museum under Dr. Dan Louie Jr. in 1987. Community fundraising, municipal support and donated family possessions gradually built the collection before the 7,200-square-foot museum opened on December 18, 2003, becoming Southern California's first museum devoted to Chinese American history in the region. Continue to Kong Chow Benevolent Association, whose Los Angeles organization originated among migrants from Guangdong's Kong Chow region and dates to 1889. Members built a two-story brick temple on Ferguson Alley 1891, combining spiritual practice with medical, legal, social and economic assistance for Chinese residents. Demolition of Old Chinatown eventually displaced the association and its temple, yet altars, deities and other artifacts moved into New Chinatown; architect Gilbert Leong designed the present Broadway building completed in 1960. Guan Di remains the principal deity within a shrine whose surviving objects connect the present association with religious life in nineteenth-century Los Angeles. Conclude at Thien Hau Temple, operated by the Camau Association of America and centered on Mazu, the sea deity associated with sailors and maritime communities. The association acquired a former Christian church during the 1980s and converted it into a small Taoist temple, with Mazu joined by Guan Yu, Fu De and the Buddhist bodhisattva Dizang. Community fundraising supported construction of a larger adjoining temple over two years; the new building was completed in September 2005 and formally dedicated on March 25, 2006. The institution carries traditions maintained by Chinese-Vietnamese families from CΓ Mau Province into Los Angeles, extending Chinatown's religious history through another migration across Asia and the Pacific. The progression moves from the Garnier Building's connection to Old Chinatown through Kong Chow's migration from Ferguson Alley into New Chinatown and culminates in Thien Hau Temple's Chinese-Vietnamese religious community, tracing successive generations that rebuilt Chinese cultural institutions across Central Los Angeles.
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