Day 297: The Garnier Building, Los Angeles, California
📌APIA Every Day (297) - The Garnier Building, constructed in 1890, is the oldest remaining building from Los Angeles’ original Chinatown district and the oldest surviving historic Chinese structure in a major city of California. The building was an important political, economic, and social center for the local Chinese community for much of the early 20th century. Serving as the early headquarters of organizations like the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA), it was informally regarded as the old Chinatown district’s city hall.
The Garnier Building was originally constructed by a French businessman, Philippe Garnier, and was designed primarily for Chinese business tenants in the area. A collection of various Chinese associations, businesses, religious spaces, and schools were located inside. The building's layout reflected traditional Chinese spatial hierarchies, with spaces of authority placed on the upper floors, closer to the heavens. Following this idea, churches and schools were located on the second story while the ground floor was occupied by commercial spaces. Aside from the CCBA, other notable tenants included The Chinese American Citizens Alliance, the Sun Wing Wo Company merchandise store, and The Wong Ha Christian Chinese Missions School. Many of these establishments are still active in Los Angeles today.
Once it was occupied in the 1890s, Chinese tenants remained continuous inhabitants of the building for a period of six decades until the 1950s. Beginning in 1933, the Los Angeles city government started evicting Chinese Americans from the old Chinatown district in the interest of advancing transportation developments like the construction of Union Station. Demolishing much of Chinatown in the process, only the Garnier Building was left standing. In the 1950s, however, the southern half of the building was torn down to accommodate the new Hollywood/Santa Ana freeway. In the aftermath, the building was largely abandoned.
In acknowledgment of the Garnier Building’s significance to the early Chinese community and the city’s old Chinatown, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 as part of the Los Angeles Plaza Historic District.In 2003, after 20 years of community planning and activism, the Chinese American Museum (CAM) officially opened in the vacant building. The first institution of its kind in Southern California, the CAM continues to preserve and highlight the historical legacy of Chinese Americans in Los Angeles.
Written by Avneet Dhaliwal
LEARN MORE:
Chinese American Museum LA: The Building - Los Angeles
Chinese American Museum LA:Mission and History
Historical Marker Database: Garnier Building
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