The previous On Leong Service provider Affiliation Constructing has been a logo of Chinatown for almost a century, carrying with it a historical past as colourful as its structure.
And now the 97-year-old Chicago constructing’s design and backstory would possibly earn it a spot on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations.
This system committee of the Fee on Chicago Landmarks is ready to vote Could 16 on whether or not to help a Nationwide Register itemizing for the On Leong constructing, now referred to as the Pui Tak Heart.
A “sure” vote might put the advice on a path to be accepted by the Nationwide Park Service round Labor Day.
The constructing can be Chinatown’s first Nationwide Register itemizing, although the On Leong was made a protected metropolis of Chicago landmark in 1993.
Pui Tak Heart government director David Wu mentioned the Chinese language Christian Union Church — which has owned the constructing at 2216 S. Wentworth Ave. since 1993 — utilized for Nationwide Register standing.
“It’s a part of preserving [the building] for the following hundred years,” Wu mentioned.
Heart of life in Chinatown
In-built 1928, the On Leong was one of many first buildings constructed within the then-new Chinatown. The On Leong retailers resettled within the space of twenty second Avenue and Wentworth Avenue after Chinese language companies had been basically gentrified out of the South Loop beginning within the Nineteen Twenties.
Whereas the outdated South Loop Chinatown buildings had no overtly Chinese language-inspired stylings, constructions within the new Chinatown would, beginning with the On Leong headquarters.
Impressed by the Chinese language Eclecticism type that got here into vogue in San Francisco when that metropolis’s Chinatown rebuilt itself after the 1906 earthquake, the On Leong was designed with towers formed like pagodas and dazzling patterned and textured brickwork.
And the constructing’s terracotta detailing is, palms down, among the many metropolis’s best — and that’s saying one thing in Chicago — that includes shade, summary shapes, even green-and-gold dragons.
The constructing’s architects, Christian S. Michaelsen and Sigurd A. Rognstad, weren’t Chinese language, had by no means stepped foot in China and had by no means beforehand designed a Chinese language-inspired constructing.
However the On Leong service provider’s chief Jim Moy introduced them on anyway, and the architects ended up getting the swing of issues by finding out tutorial works on Chinese language structure.
The On Leong constructing turned the middle of life in Chinatown for many of the twentieth century.
Its retailers, performing as a chamber of commerce, funded and directed Chinatown’s progress. They helped Chinese language immigrants get jobs and housing.
The 30,000-square-foot constructing had lecture rooms the place youngsters discovered English, brush writing and different Chinese language languages. There was a Chinese language drum-and-bugle corps there and even a courtroom the place disputes had been settled.
Works Progress Administration writers referred to as the constructing “Chinatown’s Metropolis Corridor.”
“So mainly, the group in all probability thought themselves as being only a southern China village dropped into Chicago and mentioned they might deal with form of the whole lot in life, simply by itself,” Wu mentioned. “Together with maintaining legislation and order.”
“That is the form of constructing that involves us, and it’s like: ‘This could have been earlier than us a very long time in the past,’” mentioned Amy Hathaway, Nationwide Register specialist with the Illinois State Historic Preservation Workplace.
“It’s a tremendous constructing, and its historical past, in fact, with the Chinese language group in Chicago is unimaginable. I can’t consider one other property in Illinois that may have a more in-depth affiliation with Chinese language historical past and tradition.”
Chinatown’s ‘most essential constructing’
By the Nineteen Seventies, the retailers affiliation began dropping its energy. The group got here to an finish when Chicago police and federal brokers raided the constructing in 1988. Authorities hauled out unlawful playing tools from a secret second-floor on line casino and seized $350,000 in money from a vault.
The FBI seized the constructing. And this as soon as proud image of Chinatown stood vacant and deteriorating till the Chinese language Christian Union Church purchased the edifice in 1993 and returned it to its authentic (and authorized) functions.
Since then, the church rehabilitated the constructing. Not too long ago, it spent $900,000 to revive the construction’s picturesque most important entry cover, in response to Wu, who hopes a Nationwide Register itemizing would enhance efforts to boost extra cash for extra work on the constructing.
“The church’s work is spiritual,” he mentioned. “Our work is in human service. However, you understand, we’re the stewards of crucial constructing in Chinatown. And that’s why we’ve tried to protect it.”
Chinatowns across the nation have been left in danger due to property costs and strain to redevelop them. In 2023, the Nationwide Belief for Historic Preservation began a program to assist save these historic neighborhoods.
Not like in different cities, although, Chicago’s Chinatown is flourishing. Getting the On Leong constructing listed on Nationwide Register — and all the nice that might come from it — will assist the world proceed to flourish.
That’s good for Chinatown. And town.
