Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2-22-2020 Public Comment - C. Alegria - Mendenhall Deviation Application 19455The Extreme History Project - 234 E. Mendenhall - Bozeman MT 59715 www.extremehistoryproject.org 406-220-2678 February 21, 2020 City of Bozeman - City Commission Dear Mayor Mehl and City Commissioners, I am in support of the requested modification/Certificate of Appropriateness Deviation application to allow for encroachment of open space hardscaping and a 4-foot awning into the 35-foot watercourse setback when combined with the associated provision to examine the historic archaeology of the site prior to construction. Bozeman Creek has historically been an integral part of our community and continues to be today. This deviation is an opportunity to not only engage the public with the creek, but to engage the public with our community’s significant history. These setback improvements would allow for points of access to Bozeman Creek and would allow our historical record to be expanded and interpreted. Historically, this project area was a thriving commercial and residential area. The alley between Main and Mendenhall Streets and book-ended by Rouse and Bozeman Avenues, was referred to as “China Alley” on Sanborn Insurance maps and was the residential and business location for Bozeman’s Chinese community. This area was also Bozeman’s red-light district, the location of “female boarding houses,” a euphemism for houses of prostitution. No standing structures remain, but archaeologically this project area is rich with the material remnants of these two marginalized communities. When professional archaeologists do geophysical survey and excavate a small number of test units, taking limited time and budget and possibly including community partners such as Montana State University’s Anthropology Department, this project will be a win-win for Bozeman’s preservation community and the developer. The resulting information will give us much-needed insight into Bozeman’s early history and provide context for interpretive signage. With Bozeman’s rapid growth, this is a chance that will not present itself again. Let’s collectively take the opportunity to recover our history before it is lost forever. This past week, a very similar project has had positive press in Missoula, MT. Here is a link to an article on the project published by the Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart- news/beneath-missoula-remnants-19th-century-red-light-district-and-chinatown-180974230/. Thank you for supporting this deviation and thank you for supporting the documentation of Bozeman’s rich historical record. Sincerely, The Extreme History Project - 234 E. Mendenhall - Bozeman MT 59715 www.extremehistoryproject.org 406-220-2678 Crystal Alegria Director of The Extreme History Project Here is a brief historic overview that provides background on the early use of this area. “The half-block between Mendenhall Street and the alley between Bozeman and Rouse Avenues was historically occupied by marginalized residents, namely prostitutes and Chinese immigrants. This combination red-light district/Chinatown began by about the mid-1870s. Within a short time, prostitution was said to “flourish” there. The Chinese population was likely small at that time, however, the 1880 census listed just 25 Chinese in all of Bozeman. Even assuming that the count was off by 100% the numbers were relatively small. When they arrived, Chinese immigrants occupied both sides of the alley, although were mainly living on the north side of that thoroughfare. By the late 1880s, roughly half of the buildings identified by affiliation on a city map were occupied by prostitutes or Chinese immigrants. Houses and businesses were fairly densely concentrated in the half-block, but exhibited irregular placement, with a combination of alley houses, commercial placements at the front of lots, or “house” placements set back in lots. By the 1890s, Bozeman’s red-light district/Chinatown was certainly well-established with a strong population of residents. What Chinese businesses were labeled as such on a 1891 map indicate that those Chinese businesses oriented toward non-Chinese clients, such as laundries and restaurants, were set at the margins of Chinatown, often on Main street or Bozeman Avenue. The Chinese population had probably reached its largest numbers for Bozeman by the turn of the twentieth century, and there is some indication that the same might be said for the prostitutes. At that time, the half-block was densely populated, with the houses of prostitution concentrated at the east end of the half-block and the Chinese immigrants at the south end. The Chinese immigrant population at that time apparently was entirely male, much as it had been throughout Bozeman’s Chinatown’s existence. The immigrants included at least a few men who must have been very familiar to Bozeman residents because of their long history in town. Among those was Quong Chung Long, who owned one of the longest-operated Chinese laundries in the city. His business, on Bozeman Avenue, opened by 1884 and continued until at least 1912. Quong later went on to form the Quong Chung Long Company, which sold Chinese and Japanese goods in the Bozeman (Chinatown) alley into the early 1920s. The first decade of the twentieth century was the beginning of major changes for the red-light district/Chinatown. The Chinese immigrant population began to “Americanize,” at least in its appearance. At the same time, it was aging, and population size stagnated between 1900 and 1910. Regarding the prostitutes, the tolerance to which they were accustomed in the late nineteenth century was rapidly fading. By the mid-1920s, the red-light district had effectively been eliminated, with the brothels converted to other uses or later destroyed. Chinatown too was no longer viable. By 1920, the reported Chinese The Extreme History Project - 234 E. Mendenhall - Bozeman MT 59715 www.extremehistoryproject.org 406-220-2678 immigrant population had dropped to 13. The last of the known Chinese businesses in the half-block of interest were a laundry on Bozeman Avenue and Quong Chong Long’s Asian good shop in the alley. While the old Chinese immigrants had died, returned to China, and moved elsewhere, a small Chinese population occupied Quong’s old shop, which had been converted completely for boarding. For a short time between the late 1920s and mid-1930s, several single Chinese men, apparently new-commers to Bozeman, lived at this last remnant of Chinatown. They shared the building with a small number of non- Chinese men and occasionally their wives. This last vestige of Chinatown was abandoned in the late 1930s. After World War II, those buildings still standing in the former red-light district/Chinatown were mainly single and multi-unit dwellings. A few new businesses were added mainly late in the historic period. They were an automobile service station at the corner of Mendenhall and Rouse, erected in about 1941, and the Haaland Furniture store, along Bozeman at the west end of the block, built in 1954.” (Renewable Technologies, Inc, May 5 2010) Renewable Technologies, Inc. 2010 “Environmental Assessment, City of Bozeman, Reconstruction Following an Explosion In a Historic District.” Report on file at the City of Bozeman, Bozeman, MT.