Chinatown
Also known as: Chinatown Archeological Site
Why it's listed
Riverside's Chinatown occupied a hollow near the Tequesquite Arroyo, where Chinese immigrants settled in 1885 and lived until the 1930s. The village grew to about thirty buildings, including wooden and brick commercial structures, a temple, and a headquarters building for the Chee Kung Tong. Residents worked in citrus groves, ran laundries, and leased garden land along the Santa Ana River. No buildings survive on the roughly 2.5-acre site today. Fill dirt placed in the 1940s and 1950s covered much of the eastern area and helped protect it from relic hunters, and test work suggests brick foundations remain beneath it. Archeological work in 1984-85, led by the Great Basin Foundation after a citizens' campaign, recovered more than three tons of material. The finds include a very large stoneware collection, opium artifacts, animal bones, botanical remains and coins, now held at the Riverside Municipal Museum. The site is valued for what it can still reveal about rural Chinese communities in California.
Significance in brief: The site holds buried remains of a rural Chinese village that housed residents and businesses and supported the local citrus industry through labor, laundry and vegetable gardening. Excavations in 1984-85 recovered more than three tons of artifacts, including very large stoneware and opium-related collections, that provide a major research resource on Chinese village life in California.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 90000151, listed March 1, 1990. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | Brockton and Tequesquite Aves., Riverside |
|---|---|
| County | Riverside County |
| Listed | March 1, 1990 |
| Reference number | 90000151 |
| Resource type | Site |
| Areas of significance | Commerce, Historic - Non-Aboriginal, Agriculture, Asian, Social History |
| Level of significance | State |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | No standing structures remain; the site is mostly a bare field with pepper trees and a bamboo grove, partly covered by fill, with part used as a parking lot. Current function is listed as vacant/not in use. |
| Acreage | 2.5 |
| Coordinates | 33.97649, -117.38561 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
Sites (archaeological sites, battlefields, landscapes) are often listed with a restricted address to protect them from looting or disturbance. Listing is honorary for private owners; federal undertakings on or near the site go through Section 106 review, and state laws may protect burials and artefacts regardless of listing.
Noted as vacant in the nomination. Nomination documents can be decades old; current status may differ. If you are considering buying an empty listed property, read the due-diligence checklist.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 90000151.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.