In 1908, a Chinese or “Chop Suey” restaurant opened at 240 N. Queen in Lancaster. It later moved to the corner of N. Queen and Chestnut. Both locations were close to the laundry owned by Chinese immigrants–known as the “Chinese laundry”–and the train station across the street. This block was the site of Lancaster’s small “Chinatown.” In the 1910s less than a dozen Chinese immigrants lived in Lancaster. It was not unusual for medium-sized like Lancaster to have small Chinatown neighborhoods. Lancaster’s Chinese restaurant, like others across the nation, was linked to vice, such as opium, gambling, and commercial sex.
The Chop Suey restaurant was open 24 hours a day. It frequently made the news when unruly customers were loud, drunk, and combative. The restaurant was also known for serving Black and white customers, which was not common in Lancaster. Thieves and vandals targeted the restaurant repeatedly. Chinese restaurants, which became popular in the early 1900s, featured chop suey, a combination of vegetables and meat stir-fried over high heat, which was considered to be relatively nutritious and satisfying. The New York Times declared, in 1900, that New York City was “chop suey mad.” Because this meal was also inexpensive, chop suey restaurants attracted working-class patrons. In some cities, messenger boys and bell boys, who were central to the networks of gambling and prostitution, ate at Chinese restaurants regularly. Prostitutes also arrived at the restaurant in groups, taking a break from their work, late a night.
Chinese immigrants’ involvement with commercial sex and gambling was tied to the discrimination against them. Anti-Chinese nativism fueled the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which severely restricted Chinese immigration. In addition, Chinese immigrants were barred from many jobs and faced other legal restrictions, including a ban against testifying in court against whites, which made them more vulnerable to white violence. These restrictions on the lives of Chinese Americans helps explain why they worked in restaurants and laundries to earn a living and why some proprietors in Chinatowns across the nation turned to gambling and commercial sex to augment their incomes.
It is important to note here that other immigrant groups in Lancaster were also associated with vice. Many of the German beer gardens and concert halls in Lancaster, were known for commercial sex and drinking.
In 1909, a young white woman Elsie Siegel, was murdered by a Chinese restaurant worker in New York City. Siegel had been working as a missionary among Chinese immigrants. This crime made front page news and fueled sensationalistic stories of white female victimization in the theater, novels, and the press. Some states and cities considered bans on white women’s employment in and patronage of Chinese establishments. These sentiments likely increased the police surveillance of Lancaster’s chop suey restaurant. In 1911 city authorities ordered the restaurant closed because the owners “were unable to control the customers who came there.”
Tom Lee has had considerable trouble to keep drunks from running his place of late and he thinks it is about time to call a halt.
Lancaster Intelligencer, April 16, 1909.
The restaurant reopened later, but in a new location and under new ownership. Police charged the new owner with running a bawdy house– renting out rooms in the attached lodging house for commercial sex. Tom Lee, who had previously owned the restaurant, ran a laundry after the restaurant first closed in 1911. In December 1912, the laundry was raided by the police, and Tom Lee was accused of “enticing girls for immoral purposes.” Police found an eighteen-year-old white woman in his laundry. She said that she had started visiting Lee when she was sixteen, as had other white teenagers in the area. It was not uncommon for anti-vice investigators to find white brothel keepers recruiting young girls, but this news report indicates more intense hostility toward a Chinese man.
Despite these barriers, Chinese immigrants were not passive victims of racism. Tom Lee tried to protect his restaurant by suing customers who stole from him or destroyed his property. For example, Tom Lee brought a suit against a customer who swept everything off tables and broke the restaurant’s furniture in a drunken rage. Lee won these cases.
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