Route 66: ChiCAGO
Today’s Post is actually guest written by Blake Palmer! Blake is a senior undergraduate at Berkeley who has been working with me on the Louie assemblage for two years now. They have a pretty thorough knowledge of the collection now, and very grateful to have them contribute to the Blog (and hopefully I’ll figure out how to put their name at the header!)
This image shows a rice paper and wood fan from Chiam’s first restaurant location, proclaiming it “Chinatown’s Most Modern Restaurant”. The top of the fan features a series of red, pink, and white roses with green leaves on an airbrushed pink background. The lettering is in black.
Chicago was the terminus of Route 66, and took the Louies to one of the biggest Chinatowns in the country. We’ll do a series of blog posts on Chicago, but for now, Blake is going to write about Chiam.
FS Louie Ashtray from Chaim from its first location at 2251 So. Wentworth Ave. The ashtray features under the name “CHIAM” in a chop suey style font, the explanation “…means chinese-american.” This ashtray dates sometime between 1952 to 1966. Note that the phone number uses the old exchange style of number, “CA-5-4766”
CHIAM (Chinese + American = CHIAM)
Chicago’s Chinatown, like many Chinatown districts across the US, holds its own unique and sorted history. Through immigration policies such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (and its subsequent renewal in 1892) as well as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, many Chinese immigrants made the move to Chicago from California. Due to ongoing discrimination, Old Chinatown residents began moving south to Amor Square in the 1910s, establishing the Southside Chinatown of today.
The early 1900s brought about a distinct American infatuation with chop suey, a distinctly Chinese American dish, that inspired many to open restaurants throughout Chinatown.
Owned and operated by Jin Wong, The Chicago Tribune published the first advertisement for Chiam Restaurant in late 1950, marking the earliest known date for the restaurant at 2251/2253 Wentworth Avenue.
F.S. Louie supplied dining wares to Chiam in its earlier days of operation on Wentworth Avenue. Provided that the ashtray within our Louie collection depicts the original Chiam location, later newspaper clippings mark the move of Chiam to a larger location just down the street on December 15th, 1966.
Comparison of photographs and postcards suggest that the new Chiam location better served the community but offering a larger banquet style dining room and updated accents for a livelier nightlife scene.
We have not yet been able to establish when Chiam closed their doors, but sentiments within Chinatown Facebook groups point to an early 1990s closure date. The second Chiam location is still intact but it now serves the community as a bank.
There is no doubt that Chiam was a fixture of community and patronage throughout its lifetime. The Wong family seemed to have a deeper connection to the Bay Area as well, as they helped to open the famous Empress of China in San Francisco’s Chinatown—highlighting the connection between communities across the United States.
A postcard photograph from the second location shows the banquet room with the tables all set with F.S. Louie’s “Two Women/Characters” pattern dinner plates and handled cups and saucers.
