Hop alley sign history denver10/23/2023 ![]() Although there was no evidence that the Chinese engaged in these activities to a greater degree than Euro-Americans, Chinatown became a scapegoat for many of Denver’s issues. They also linked Chinatown to societal vices, such as gambling, prostitution, and opium dens. Journalists published articles arguing that the Chinese were descendents of the Mongol Empire, suggesting that the Chinese threatened to take over the United States. ![]() In the 1870s, anti-Chinese sentiment spread to Colorado, as Euro-Americans increasingly viewed Chinatown with suspicion. Anti-Chinese hysteria was ramping up throughout the American West and Denver’s Chinatown was vulnerable. While the central location of Chinatown allowed for Chinese businesses to be profitable, it also made them a visible minority in a racially charged society. Typically, Chinese migrants established and ran laundromats. Since LoDo was one of the busier sections of Denver, they could easily set up businesses and find service jobs in the area. ![]() Though the population was small, most Chinese migrants chose to live in LoDo because of its centrality. Due to this interior migration, Denver’s Chinese population jumped from 4 in 1870 to 238 in 1880. Many had initially emigrated from China with the hopes of making a fortune in the gold rush they quickly found other avenues through which to make money, such as working on the railroads and in service jobs. As Americans moved westward, Chinese miners, railroad workers, and businesspeople were making their way from the West Coast to the interior states and territories of the United States. Prior to 1870, there were few, if any, Chinese people living in the city. Contact National & State Register Staff.Recent Listings in the National & State Registers.Colorado State Register of Historic Properties.Preservation Planning Unit Resource Center.Information for Archaeologists, Paleontologists and Researchers.Information for Students and Volunteers.Information for Museums and Curatorial Repositories.State-Approved Museums and Curatorial Repositories Expand.Office of Archaeology & Historic Preservation.Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation.Federal Historic Tax Credit Impact in Colorado.Archaeology & Historic Preservation Month.Program for Avocational Archaeological Certification (PAAC) Expand.About the State Historic Preservation Office Expand.“It’s like this was meant to be a Chinese restaurant at some point. “He was making wonton wrappers and growing bean sprouts in the basement,” Lee says. All the same, Lee has dug up some serendipitous history about the building: In the 1950s it was a soy sauce factory, and later on the building’s owner used the space as a commissary kitchen for Asian foods. Located at 35th and Larimer streets, Lee’s restaurant sits outside what would have been Hop Alley’s boundaries. When Lee was concepting his restaurant and brainstorming names (for a long time the project was known as Bar Uncle), he landed on Hop Alley. Over time, that neighborhood came to be known as Hop Alley. ![]() According to Lee’s research, back in the 1860s and ’70s, a community of up to 2,000 Chinese (many of whom had come to work on the railroads) lived in what is now LoDo. When Uncle‘s Tommy Lee opens Hop Alley in late November, he’ll do more than launch a second restaurant-he’ll pay tribute to Denver’s long-lost Chinatown. The Local newsletter is your free, daily guide to life in Colorado.
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