In its heyday at the beginning of the 20th century, Santa Barbara's thriving Chinatown occupied a bustling three-block area along east Canon Perdido Street.
Residents, some 500 strong, gave the surrounding community a steady source of year-round labor, working on farms, fishing boats, highway crews and as domestic help.
The most successful had farms and businesses of their own.
The UCSB History Associates will visit the streets and neighborhoods of Chinese Santa Barbara Sunday, April 22, for a program called "Santa Barbara's Chinatown."
The event begins at 2 p.m. in the Karpeles Manuscript Library, 21 West Anapamu Street then departs on a walking tour past the sites of former Chinese laundries, lotteries, joss houses, Buddhist temples and perhaps an opium den or two.
Cost of the event is $10 to History Associates members and $12 to non-members.
Reservations can be made by calling the UCSB Office of Community Relations at 893-4388.
Linda Bentz, an anthropologist who has studied the Chinese in California and the Santa Barbara area, will give the opening talk in the Karpeles Manuscript Library.
The walking tour will be led by Ella Yee Qwan a native of the neighborhood.
Share this article
