Celebrating the Chinese-American cultural heritage of the Midwest
The Chinatown Museum Foundation is now the proud owner of a 4-story brick building at 238 West 23rd Street. A landmark in Chinatown history (for other historic Chicago buildings, click on Historic Photos), it was built in 1896, presumably as a warehouse or small factory with shop space downstairs. In 1912, the year when Chinatown moved south to its present location from Chicago's Loop, the building housed the Chapman Manufacturing Company's medicine factory.
For the next 40 years the history of the building is obscure. It is believed to have continued to serve as a (non-Chinese) medicine factory and wholesale pharmacy during part of that time. By1939 we know that it was occupied by the Great China Food Company, an importer of Chinese foodstuffs owned by members of the Lee family. In 1948 the Lees made it the headquarters of the Quong Yick Wholesale Trading Company, which became the second largest Chinese foodstuff wholesaler in the Midwest. Quong Yick also produced its own bean curd and grew its own bean sprouts in its basement. The ground floor was for business while the upper floors served to warehouse foodstuffs and provided temporary beds for staff members.
After a long decline during the 1980s and 1990s, Quong Yick finally closed its doors in 1998. It was bought from its long-time owners by Jeffrey Moy, of an old Chinatown family. He removed most of the internal features of the building -- partitions, refrigeration equipment, etc, -- in preparation for conversion to other uses. Then, in April of 2004, he decided instead to sell the building to the Chinatown Museum Foundation.
Two months later, Raymond Lee 李秉樞, a member of the former owners' family who had himself lived and worked in the building as a young man, finalized plans to donate its cost to the Foundation. His decision was announced on June 12, and the Foundation knew it had a museum.
The summer and fall were occupied with planning, obtaining the necessary re-zoning and building permit, and raising the needed funds. Renovation work began the day after Christmas. Work on the first stage, the cponversion of the first floor into a modern exhibition gallery, proceeded rapidly. The museum opened to the public in May 2005.
Work begins on December 26, a week after the finalized building permit was obtained. The permit for this phase of work covers the fire stairs all the way to the 4th floor plus a gut rehab of the 1st floor: new wiring, plumbing, and HVAC, a new hardwood floor, insulation for the walls, and gypsum board for the walls and ceiling. The first of many scheduled inspections (of the reinforced concrete footings for the stairwell foundations) was passed on January 5. By January 9 the floor underlayment, furring strips for the ceiling, and steel studs for the soffits and walls have been installed. By January 12 the first courses of concrete blocks have been laid on the foundation of the south stairwell wall. By January 19 the walls of both stairwells have reached a level halfway between the main and 2nd floors. Steel fire doors have already been installed in the walls of both stairwells, on the main floor and in the basement. Most of the ceiling ductwork has been installed. By February 2, the main floor is not too far from completion. The wall board has not been installed yet, but the plumbing is in, and so is the roughed-in electric in the walls (but not the ceiling). The concrete block walls of the stairwells at both ends have risen to the ceiling of the 2nd floor, and the steel fire stairs are now half-way from the 2nd floor to the 3rd. The plans for the facade, handicapped entrance, and reception area are in the hands of the city and should, hopefully, receive the needed city building permit within 5-6 weeks. We do not expect a serious delay at Chinese New Year, which comes on February 9 this year -- the contractor and his workmen are working hard to finish on time.
As of February 7, the 3rd floor beams have been cut to accommodate the stairwell walls. The number of electrical outlets on the 1st floor has been tripled, as requested, and insulation is now being installed on the east wall. The city inspector has approved the plumbing and electrical conduit due to be covered by drywall. On February 9, Lunar New Year, which is the most important of all Chinese holidays, the work continues! More ductwork is being installed, under the personal supervision of the general contractor. The explanation: the mechanical subcontractor in charge of the ductwork is an African-American and so are his workers. So they don't mind working on Chinese New Year. But the general contractor is Chinese-American, and he is working for part of the day. The CMF's Building Subcommittee is amazed and pleased.
By February 19 the vapor barrier is in place and gypsum wallboard is being installed on the walls, the soffits, and the ceiling. It looks good -- the future exhibition hall will seem spacious enough. The stairwell walls have reached the 4th floor, and the steel stairs inside have gone past the 3rd floor at the north end and half-way to the 3rd floor at the south end. The forced-air ducts are ready to go and the furnace is about to have its first test. The electrical work has struck a snag: it will be necessary to have Com Ed, the local power company, install new service in place of the existing 200-amp line. However, the other 100-amp line seems to be okay and a temporary 200-amp line has been added. While there is no water yet, the plumbing is almost ready for use. It turns out that the roof has leaks. We will have to replace it before the museum opens in May.
More progress by February 26. In spite of the delay caused by the electrical problem (which makes it impossible to use the freight elevator, so that concrete blocks have to be carried up four floors by hand) the first phase of the project is approaching completion. All steel stairs are now in place but still need concrete to be poured for stair treads. The stairwell walls have passed the 4th floor, and the 4th floor beams are now cut and supported by the stairwells. The drywall on the main floor is all installed and taped. The basement now has a drywall ceiling too, for fireproofing. The bathrooms are ready for tiling, and the floor is ready for the oak flooring to be installed. The front and back vestibules are coming more slowly, but the main 22 x 55 foot exhibition space should be ready for use -- that is, for the first stages of exhibit installation -- within about two more weeks.
March 4. The ceiling and walls are painted. The next step: the oak flooring ...
May 21. The museum opens. Pictures and a narrative of the last 2 1/2 months of the project will be posted here in due course. Briefly, the work went well. The contractor, Fortune Construction Company, took a personal interest in the project and worked hard and well. The various subcontractors worked well too. The only bad experience we had was with a separate project, a roof tearoff and replacement. That project began on April 21st, should have taken four-five days, and still is not finished. The roofing company has jobs which it feels have a higher priority and, as a majority-owned firm outside Chicago, judges that the small minority-run city-based CMF is powerless to change the situation. We shall see ...
The next step is to carry out Phase Ib of the renovation plan, which will involve installing a new first-floor facade, involving floor-to-ceiling glass, a wider entrance on the 23rd street side, and a handicapped entrance on the vacant lot side. The checklist for the permit has been completed by the city but the permit has not come yet. It is expected very shortly. We were disappointed that Phase Ib could not be started and finished before the May 21 opening.
And the next step after that is to complete and submit the Phase II application. As currently planned, it will include all of the work still remaining -- conversion of the vacant lot into a garden-parking area, building a passenger elevator, and renovating the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Floors. We will not be able to finish (or finance) all of these changes at once. But we now realize that the nature of the permit process makes it easier to submit a single large package of changes rather than a series of smaller packages.
June 1. The roof is about finished. Once the roofer is gone, we have to bring in a mason to tuckpoint the parapet and to rebuild the top six or seven courses of brick on the west side, where the parapet has been most badly damaged by the weather. We hope that Installing the condenser for the 1st floor a/c sustem can begin within a week or so.
January 19
February 2
February 7
Kinsuk's father (Shing Lam) at 23rd Street door
Raymond Lee and cousin at 23rd Street door
Note: May (Lam) Soo Hoo just sent us an email to tell us that we were wrong about the identity of the man in the doorway in the second black-and-white picture. We had thought he was Ton Lam. But May Soo Hoo says no -- instead, he is her grandfather, Shing Lam. Her email concludes "Because of the mistake, I now have a picture of my grandfather which I didn't have before." We apologize for the error but are happy to be in contact with Ms. May.
Feb 9: New Year
New Year decoration and visitors: CMF President Chuimei Ho with Prof. Laura Junker of the U of Illinois at Chicago and Prof Rasmi Shoocondej of Silpakorn U., Bangkok. The rooster is by CMF Advisory Council member Maria Moy
Feb 9, 2005. New Year dragon decoration in front of the future parking garden, designed and built by CMF Board member Billy Moy. The corner of the museum building is on the right.
February 11
Looking north from the 4th floor, Alexander St. end
February 19
February 26
February 26
February 26
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Raymond Lee (lead donor), Kinman Auyeung (project architect), and K. K. Tee (CMF treasurer) standing in Raymond's former shared bedroom on the 3rd floor of the museum building
March 4
March 4
August 2004-February 2005
May 25, 2005. (Left) View of 23rd Street front with banners for the exhibit opening. We expect work on a new floor-to-ceiling store-front window, a recessed glass door, and a handicapped entrance to be finished by August. The upper floor windows will be replaced soon after that. (Right) Closeup of the current 23rd Street entrance. Compare this with the historic pictures of the 23rd Street door as shown in the next section, Views of Quong Yick & Co.
Entrance to exhibition hall (not yet named for a donor)
The exhibition hall as seen from the entrance, looking north
The exhibition hall, looking south toward the entrance
The exhibition hall, looking south with exhibit cases in center
The architect is Kinman Auyeung. Construction work, by Fortune Contruction Co., took four months. All exhibit work was done entirely by volunteers over a period of fourteen weeks: object and image selection, two- and three-dimensional design, the fabrication of fixed cases and other 3-D display units, the writing and printing of labels and text panels, and the mounting of graphics and artifacts. The designer of the exhibit is Gwen Moy. The curator is Soo Lon Moy. The lead preparator is Mark Birbeck. Click here for more views of the exhibition.
