Toronto’s first Chinatown grew on Elizabeth Street, north of Queen Street, from about 1909, and most of it was cleared in the 1950s to make room for the new City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square. Chinese Torontonians had been in the city since at least 1878, when a city directory listed Sam Ching’s laundry at 9 Adelaide Street East. After the demolitions, the community organized as the Save Chinatown Committee in 1967, and the city council adopted a plan to preserve what remained on June 16, 1969. A newer Chinatown meanwhile grew around Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street.
The article on immigration and communities in Toronto gives a short outline of these events. This article adds the laundries, the street’s institutions, the economics of the trades, and the sequence of council decisions, using documents held by the City of Toronto Archives and heritage bodies.
Laundries and the first residents
The City of Toronto Archives records that the 1878 city directory lists Sam Ching among the first Chinese people working in Toronto. In 1882, according to a YMCA bulletin, nine of the 16 Chinese residents attended Bible classes on Queen Street West. Directories show Chinese-run laundries spreading across the city, and in 1908 the directory began listing them separately because there were so many.
A council decision of 1902 shows how the trade was regulated. The Property Committee approved a $50 CAD license fee for all laundries. The Chinese owners opposed it, and a fee of $5 to $20 was adopted after an amendment by Alderman William Peyton Hubbard.
Elizabeth Street Chinatown
According to the Archives, Chinatown emerged in 1909 on Elizabeth Street north of Queen Street, in an area where a large Jewish community had lived earlier. In 1911, Gip Kan Mark became the first Chinese person to own property on the street. By the early 1920s the district centered on the intersection of Elizabeth and Dundas Streets. Lost Rivers Walks, citing the sociologist Richard H. Thompson’s 1989 study, reports that most laundries and restaurants were on Queen Street, while seven of the nine Chinese grocery stores were on Elizabeth.
Community institutions followed. The Lung Kong Brotherhood bought 24 Elizabeth Street in 1922 and built a three-storey building there. In 1933 the Chinese United Dramatic Society bought land at 96 and 98 Elizabeth Street and built a hall seating 250.
The neighborhood was also a target of violence. In November 1919, the Archives reports, a mob of 400 men and boys smashed windows and looted Chinese stores on Elizabeth Street, and Mayor Thomas Church told the rioters that the city must have order.
The trades under exclusion
The Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 barred further Chinese immigration; it was repealed in 1947. The details of the earlier head tax are covered in the immigration article. According to Lost Rivers Walks, 1923 was the peak year, with more restaurants and laundries than in any other year of the community’s history. By 1930 laundries had fallen to 355, a loss of 116 since 1923, and restaurants numbered 104. In 1943 Chinese owners operated 316 laundries and 85 restaurants. The same source says only 44 Chinese entered Canada between 1923 and 1947, and that Toronto’s Chinese population fell by more than 400 between 1931 and 1941.
Thompson’s study, as summarized there, puts startup costs at about $500 CAD for a laundry and $1,000 to $2,000 CAD for a restaurant, and describes a typical work week of 14 hours a day, every day. Restaurants offered higher profit margins than laundries.
City Hall and the expropriations
The Archives traces the decisions in order. A by-law of 1946 restricted use of the proposed civic square site to public purposes or parking lots. On January 1, 1947, Toronto voters approved spending for a new civic square and city hall. Council records from 1948 to 1958 show the city acquiring sites in the Elizabeth Street district, and some businesses moved north. In 1955, officials preparing for the new City Hall expropriated shops and restaurants where 500 people had worked. Construction of the new City Hall began in 1962, and it opened in 1965.
Sources describe the scale differently. The Ontario Heritage Trust says that in the 1950s more than two thirds of Elizabeth Street was destroyed to build City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square. The Archives gives 1955 for the expropriation of the shops, and its council records show purchases from 1948 to 1958. These dates describe different steps of a process that ran across about a decade, and no single source consulted gives a full property count.
Save Chinatown and Jean Lumb
In 1967 a report from the city’s Commissioner said the old buildings still standing on Elizabeth Street could not feasibly be repaired, and planners proposed moving Chinatown again to make room for large office buildings north of City Hall. Chinese Canadians formed the Save Chinatown Committee. Jean Lumb, born Jean Wong in Nanaimo, British Columbia, on July 30, 1919, served as its coordinator, according to the Ontario Heritage Trust. She and her husband had opened the Kwong Chow Chop Suey House on Elizabeth Street in 1959, and it operated for 23 years.
Council adopted the Plan for the Preservation of Chinatown without amendment on June 16, 1969, and set up a special committee in 1970 to support and preserve the downtown Chinese community. Lumb was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1976, the first Chinese Canadian woman and the first restaurateur to receive it. She died on July 17, 2002.
Spadina and Dundas
The Archives states that after immigration laws changed, a new Chinatown emerged around Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street in 1967. Lost Rivers Walks describes the same shift as the movement of Chinatown west along Dundas to Spadina during the second half of the twentieth century. Lumb’s biography notes that a delegation she joined met Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in 1956 to urge easier immigration rules, and that the government changed regulations in 1957.
Timeline
- 1878: Sam Ching’s laundry at 9 Adelaide Street East is listed in the city directory.
- 1902: Council adopts a laundry fee of $5 to $20 after Hubbard’s amendment.
- 1909: Chinatown emerges on Elizabeth Street.
- 1919: A mob attacks Chinese stores on Elizabeth Street in November.
- 1923: The Chinese Immigration Act is passed; the number of businesses peaks.
- January 1, 1947: Voters approve a new civic square and city hall.
- 1955: Shops and restaurants are expropriated for the project.
- 1962 to 1965: The new City Hall is built and opens.
- 1967: The Save Chinatown Committee forms; a new Chinatown develops around Spadina and Dundas.
- June 16, 1969: Council adopts the Plan for the Preservation of Chinatown.
- August 2007: Heritage Toronto unveils a plaque at City Hall for the Elizabeth Street Chinatown.
Frequently asked questions
Where was Toronto’s first Chinatown?
On Elizabeth Street north of Queen Street, centered on the Elizabeth and Dundas intersection by the early 1920s. Part of the site is now covered by City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square.
Why was the first Chinatown demolished?
The city expropriated land for a new City Hall and civic square, which voters approved on January 1, 1947. Expropriation of shops and restaurants took place in 1955, according to the City of Toronto Archives.
Who was Jean Lumb?
A restaurateur who coordinated the Save Chinatown Committee and, in 1976, became the first Chinese Canadian woman appointed to the Order of Canada.
How can the records be searched?
The City of Toronto Archives lists its sources, including city directories, assessment rolls, council minutes, building permit applications, and photographs, in its guide to Chinese history in Toronto.
Related reading
- An overview of Toronto’s history
- Immigration and communities in Toronto’s history
- Kensington Market and its immigrant communities
- Dundas Street through the years
- How Toronto’s districts grew
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- City of Toronto Archives, research guide on Chinese history in Toronto
- Ontario Heritage Trust, background paper on Jean Lumb
- Lost Rivers Walks, Old Chinatown, citing Richard H. Thompson, Toronto’s Chinatown: The Changing Social Organization of an Ethnic Community (AMS Press, 1989)
- Heritage Toronto, plaque for Toronto’s first Chinatown, unveiled 2007
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 23). Chinatown in Toronto: From Elizabeth Street to Spadina. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/chinatown-toronto-history
MLA: “Chinatown in Toronto: From Elizabeth Street to Spadina.” History of Toronto, 23 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/chinatown-toronto-history. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Chinatown in Toronto: From Elizabeth Street to Spadina.” Last modified October 23, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/chinatown-toronto-history.
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