Chinese-Americans were part of the early history and contributed to building of the agricultural industry and building of roads and railroad lines from Los Angeles and other communities as well as making contributions to the City's growth since the late 1800s. Today, Chinese American business and property owners as well as community leaders make Santa Ana a thriving environment for residents and visitors.
Santa Ana’s Chinatown
In the late 1800’s, a community of over 200 Chinese immigrant workers occupied a part of Downtown Santa Ana. “Santa Ana’s Chinatown was located on the south side of Third Street between Main and Bush, just east of the present Old City Hall and presently lies mostly beneath a black-topped city parking lot.” (Sleeper, 1970 p. 31) During its peak years, there were as many as 800 Chinese residents living in Santa Ana. They took over abandoned abode huts, or any quarters they could find, and used them as shops and living quarters.
These residents were nation builders and despite considerable discrimination against these Chinese residents, by the late 1860’s they thrived. Chinese workers built most of the irrigation canals, drained swamps, cultivated the agricultural industry and built the railroad infrastructure of Orange County in the late 1800s. Santa Ana’s Chinatown once included lodging, drugstores, curio shops, two Chinese wash houses and a vegetable garden and barn. It was a community.
These residents jump started the celery business and brought along their own means of business such as laundry business, truck farming and the peddling of produce from horse drawn wagons. Their forced labor contributed to the creation of railroad construction, irrigation canal digging, agricultural pursuits, and fishing camps across the county.
Santa Ana’s Chinatown was often the target of racial slurs and justification to marginalize their community described as the “smelly” or “ratty” area of the City. In 1888, the Santa Ana Herald published that the Santa Ana City Board of Trustees was implored to “eradicate this plague spot – this eyesore of the City.” In 1903, the City purchased a site for their new City Hall. The bargain price of $859 is generally thought to be due to its proximity to Santa Ana’s Chinatown.
