Providence's Chinatown

Providence's

Chinatown

Exhibit and Walking Tour

April 1 - May 31, 2018

Rhode Island State Archives

337 Westminster Street, Providence, RI
Open 8:30am - 4:30pm M-F

Rediscovering
Providence's Chinatown

Between 1880 and the late 1960s, Providence was home to a bustling Chinese American community. Its Chinatown had two successive centers: the first stood on Empire Street and the second on Summer Street between Broad and Pine. Providence’s Chinatown is a project to rediscover these locations and to connect this history to Rhode Island’s modern Chinese diaspora.

This site-specific exhibit is based in window fronts downtown where the first Chinatown used to stand. A collection of documents, images, objects, and oral histories are also on display at the Rhode Island State Archives.

This exhibit is an effort to share the history of Rhode Island’s Chinese community and create a permanent archive.

A map of the exhibit locations in downtown Providence.
A map of the exhibit locations in downtown Providence.

Self-Guided Tour

Walk the streets where Chinatown once stood and discover the stories of its community.

  • 1
    Introduction

    View cultural artifacts and historic maps
    RI STATE ARCHIVES, 337 WESTMINSTER ST.

  • 2
    (un)Welcome to America

    Immigrating to Providence and RI
    TRINITY REPERTORY, 201 WASHINGTON ST.

  • 3
    Constructing Community

    Creating social and business networks
    PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY, 150 EMPIRE ST

  • 4
    Beyond Chinatown

    Stories of church life, military service, activism
    400 WESTMINSTER ST.

  • 5
    Historical Beneficent Church

    Multicultural Christian congregation
    300 WEYBOSSET ST.

  • 6
    Building Businesses

    Establishing laundries and restaurants
    275 WESTMINSTER ST.

above: The Lukes outside their Providence home, c. 1940s; front top photo: Jimmy Chin, second from left in front, and cousins in Providence, RI, c. 1950s; front bottom photo: Eng Lun Gam and family in China before she came to the United States, c. 1920s; below: The last of the Empire Street Chinatown before it moved to Summer Street, c. 1914
Thank you to our sponsors and partners
Heritage Harbor Foundation, Taiwan Nexus Grant, Chinese Historical Society of New England, Rhode Island State Archives, and the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage
Providence's Chinatown drew its original inspiration from Tufts University’s Jonathan M. Tisch College's 2016 exhibition "These Words: A Century of Printing, Writing, and Reading in Boston's Chinese Community," and its use of window displays, known as the Tisch Exhibition Model (TEM). Thank you to Diane O'Donoghue, Director of the Program for Public Humanities at Tisch College, for the continued support.
Thank you for the additional support of Providence Public Library, Trinity Repertory, Paolino Properties, Baltic Providence, LLC, and The Baltic Group, LLC.