Title

Market Street Chop Suey: "Asia Cafe"

Description

The last days of Hop Alley. On Leong-Chinese Merchants Association building on Southwest Corner of 8th and Market Streets, which also housed the Asia Café. At this time the most substantial remains of Old Chinatown. The old St. Louis Chinatown, also known as Hop Alley, was a Chinese neighborhood in downtown St. Louis. Hop Alley ran between Walnut and Chestnut Streets from Seventh to Tenth Street, growing from a community of around 250 Chinese immigrants who came to St. Louis in 1869. Starting in 1958, Chinatown was condemned and demolished to make room for urban renewal projects and Busch Memorial Stadium, which opened in 1966. This photograph was taken by James Orville Spreen, who documented urban renewal projects, the construction of the Gateway Arch, Busch Memorial Stadium, and buildings razed in the course of these projects during the 1950s and 1960s. Spreen lived from 1897 to 1991 and maintained a large collection of his well-labeled photographs, donating many of them to the State Historical Society of Missouri collections in 1984.

Creator

Photographer: James Orvile Spreen

Semester

Spring 2026

Subject

Chop Suey

"Hop Alley"

Chinatown

Downtown

Temporal Coverage

1960 – 1969

Spatial Coverage

"Hop Alley," Downtown St. Louis, Missouri

Language

English

Medium

Photograph

Date

May 11, 1963

Source

The State Historical Society of Missouri

Is Part Of

J. Orville Spreen Papers

Identifier

S0486 f. 392

Explanation of Omeka Map Location

The State Historical Society of Missouri lists the photograph as the Southwest Corner of 8th and Market Streets.