        
|
|
Al's Place
Restaurant
Locke Chinese School
BRIEF
HISTORY OF LOCKE
Established
in 1915, Locke is the only existent town in America built and inhabited
almost exclusively by Chinese until recent years.
During its heyday from the 1920s to 1940s, Locke was an
autonomous island of Chinese culture with a permanent population of
about 600, including many families, and a seasonal farm labor population
of an additional thousand. At
one time, it had four restaurants, a half dozen markets, dry goods
stores, five brothels, a post office, two slaughter houses, a flour
mill, canneries, shipping wharves, an opera, speakeasies during
Prohibition, and five gambling houses. Located
about 30 miles south of Sacramento, Locke is the legacy of the
extraordinary efforts made by the Chinese in developing agriculture in
California.
In 1970, the town was placed on the Registry of national Historic
Places.
Locke still looks almost as it did 50 years ago.
It has withstood the threat of fire and floods, the pain of
poverty, discrimination and neglect, and abandonment by most of its
original residents and offspring.
Of the ninety of so residents in Locke today, only about ten are
Chinese.
Although many of Locke’s storefronts and clapboard homes have
fallen in disrepair, recently the town’s infrastructure has been
updated and repaired.
In 1990, Locke became a National Historic Landmark |
LOCKE FOUNDATION