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43 MOTT STREET
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Our Chinatown Landmarks Story Stroll
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Our Stories, Our Chinatown Landmarks is an ongoing audio exploration of memory and place, produced by Think!Chinatown. Through a story stroll around the neighborhood, we visit and remember our community members’ own personal landmarks and memories in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Our Stories, Our Chinatown Landmarks is a part of Chinatown Arts Festival 2023, produced by Think!Chinatown.
41 Mott Street
Post
41 Mott Street in rendering at the far right, 1950.
41 Mott Street
Post
41 Mott Street, 1933. No. 41 (at the center of the frame with the balcony at the top) was home to the Chinese Merchants Association or the On Leong Tong, in the first half of the 20th century. The Association celebrated the opening of their new headquarters in 1921 with an eleven-day celebration. Its opening night saw 15,000 revelers crowding the narrow street of Chinatown and more than 6,000 merchants from 20 different cities. In 1950 the On Leong Tong Merchants Association moved into a new Chinese Modern building on Mott and Canal Streets. Since 1977 No. 41 was has been owned by the Lee Family Association, the oldest and largest tong in New York City. The building today has a modern style white facade, installed at an unknown date in the midcentury. Its lower floor has long been home to Golden Fung Wong Bakery, one of the oldest bakeries in Chinatown.
Photos & Audio
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45 Mott Street
Manhattan: Mott Street - Bayard Street Mott Street, south from a point between Bayard and Pell Streets, and across the latter to Park Street. In the background, is the R. C. Church of the Transfiguration. Note the non-oriental aspect of this locale. View 1 is the original, View 2 a photostat positive. About 1890 Eugene L. Armbruster Collection
41 Mott Street
Plans for the new On Leong Chinese Merchant’s Association, with galleries on the second and sixth floor, were filed by William H. Rahmann & Sons architects in 1919, but the building was not completed until October 1921. Manhattan Department of Buildings Plan Collection, Block 201, Lot 7. NYC Municipal Archives.
41 Mott Street
41 Mott Street
Lee Family Association, 41 Mott Street In keeping with the goals of the China Village Plan, Lee reworked the upper floors of the Lee Family Association, the former On Leong Tong Building at 41 Mott Street.
43 MOTT STREET
Lee Bow Co. 司公寳李 Our Stories, Our Chinatown Landmarks - Think!Chinatown
43 MOTT STREET
Lee Bow Co. 司公寳李 Our Stories, Our Chinatown Landmarks - Think!Chinatown
43 MOTT STREET
Lee Bow Co. 司公寳李 Our Stories, Our Chinatown Landmarks - Think!Chinatown
41 Mott Street
When it opened in 1921, the Chinese Merchants Association was the most elaborate new building in Chinatown, with tong lau-style galleries at the second and sixth floor. The sixth floor was reworked in 1929, as shown in this WPA photo from the mid to late 1930s. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
43 MOTT STREET
Karen Lew Biney-Amissah grew up coming here to visit her grandfather at Lee Bow Co. 司公寳李 – while Chinatown neighbors came here to stock up for a crackling Chinese New Year.
43 MOTT STREET
Lee Bow Co. 司公寳李 Our Stories, Our Chinatown Landmarks - Think!Chinatown
41 Mott Street
Cohen & Siegel reworked the Chinese Merchants Association’s sixth-floor gallery to create more space for association functions. The new design was richly detailed in copper. Manhattan Department of Buildings Plan Collection, Block 201, Lot 7. NYC Municipal Archives.
43 MOTT STREET
Lee Bow Co. 司公寳李 Our Stories, Our Chinatown Landmarks - Think!Chinatown
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