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Reno
Following the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, Reno—like other towns in the West—became a home for displaced Chinese laborers. The Sacramento-to-Reno section of the Central Pacific Railroad was completed in the spring of 1868; Chinese laborers who had risked life and limb laying track over the Sierra Nevada received final payment and were left along the line to fend for themselves. Many constructed flimsy bare-wood structures at the crossroads of Virginia and First streets along the banks of the Truckee River. Reno’s Chinatown was born.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reno,_Nevada
The Overland Limited at Reno in 1913
https://mynews4.com/news/knowing-nevada/knowing-nevada-renos-almost-forgotten-chinatown.
The China Town located on a 1906 sanborn map of Reno
The China Town Brothel Area (Pink circled)
A First Burning Down
Reno’s first Chinatown was established in the 1800s when many Chinese immigrants moved alongside the Truckee River and Virginia Street. Many immigrants had decided to establish their roots in Reno, after finishing up the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. Many of them who lived in Chinatown ended up facing hardship from the greater community.
In 1878, a San Francisco0based firm, Lung Chung & Company, was granted a contract to build 33 miles of the Transcontinental railroad starting near the Truckee River and ending in Reno. The Workingmen’s Party, a political party whose members consisted of middle-class working Americans, was not in favor of the Chinese for taking on this job.
The Lung Chung & Company and the Workingmen’s Party had set up negotiations about the tensions between the two, but on August 3rd, 1878, when the meeting was supposed to happen, Chinatown was set aflame.
Despite the many assumptions that the Workingmen’s Party was involved, no one was ever charged for the first burning of Chinatown.
The Chinese community then spent time rebuilding Chinatown, but the tension in the area was still prominent.
A Second Burning Down
In 1908 the Bubonic Plague had been spreading all over the world. The Reno’s Board of Health at the time called Chinatown a “physical and moral threat” and therefore Chinatown was mandated to be burned down. This fire was more severe than the first one, as a majority of homes and businesses inside the district were demolished. A joss house, also known as a Chinese temple, was one of the few buildings that survived the fire.
Those who had lived in Chinatohttps://medium.com/the-reynolds-media-lab/renos-forgotten-and-untaught-chinatown-f2c3ac6eeaa5wn were forced to relocate, and in the winter of 1908 many of them left Reno.
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