Saving what remains of Nanaimo's old Chinatown

Sue said as she continues to talk with people and hear the history of Nanaimo’s Chinatowns, she sees the importance of saving these buildings. (Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7FM)

More than 60 years after a fire ravaged Nanaimo's final Chinatown, the Nanaimo Chinatown Heritage Foundation is working to save what's left.

When Sherron Sue, chair of the heritage foundation, first moved to Nanaimo in 2020, she couldn’t believe Nanaimo had not just one but four Chinatowns.

This led her to researching more about the Chinese communities that once found culture and connection in what’s now part of downtown.

“The astonishing thing to me is that Nanaimo, at one point, this Chinatown was so vibrant, it had like an opera house, it had all these businesses, it had a Chinese school,” Sue said. “So it was like a complete community.”

According to the City of Nanaimo, the first of four Chinatowns was built in the 1860s during an influx of Chinese immigrants seeking work in the coal mining industry on Vancouver Island.

The original Chinatown featured residences, stores and restaurants. 20 years later, as more and more people came to the Harbour City to work the mines, the Chinese community was pushed to find a new location farther away from downtown.

Three subsequent Chinatowns were built as the community was pushed further away from downtown and towards the south end. When the Chinese Immigration Act, commonly known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, was passed in 1923, Chinese immigration was halted. The act remained in place until 1947, ending just after the Second World War. 

With the coal mining industry also starting to dwindle, many residents of the last Chinatown left to work elsewhere in the province. The remaining Chinatown soon became derelict and a fire on September 30th of 1960 burnt down almost all that remained.

Sue thought the fire meant there was nothing left of the history of the area, until she decided to do some research into it.

“I was looking for any evidence of the Nanaimo Chinese and the Chinatown, and then by just randomly looking online and looking for any reference to Nanaimo's Chinese, this building popped up at 880 Hecate St,” she said. “I looked at it, and I'm like, ‘oh my goodness, if that's the Chinatown, there's still buildings.’”

The building at 880 Hecate St. (pictured in 2026) was built in the last Chinatown in 1955 and was used as a multi-purpose space as well as a meeting location for the Nanaimo’s Chinese Freemasons. (Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm)

This inspired her to learn more about the history of the building, and the former Chinatowns.

She discovered through her research that 880 Hecate St. was built in the last Chinatown in 1955, just a few years before the fire. It was used as a multi-purpose space as well as a meeting location for the Nanaimo’s Chinese Freemasons. 

Only a block away from 880 Hecate St., she discovered a second building that was originally part of Nanaimo's third Chinatown.

997 Hecate St., now used for rental housing, was built in 1930 to be used by the Chinese Freemasons before they moved to the 880 Hecate St location.

On top of looking online and through archives, Sue has been attending several farmers markets in the area with the Nanaimo Chinatown Heritage Foundation to speak with people who may remember the Chinatowns.

“So this outpouring of people's memories is so amazing,” she said. “A First Nations man told me, he's like, ‘Oh yeah, I used to go to Chinatown. I'd get this octopus, I didn't know what to do with it, so I’d bring it to Chinatown, somebody would cook it for me.’ He's like, ‘yeah, we had good relationships.’”

As she was researching the building at 880 Hecate St., she learned the property was up for sale and listed for redevelopment. She then knew she wanted to save one of the last remaining buildings from the lost Chinatowns.

“We want to do the campaign now because the building looks like it's for sale to be subdivided into townhouses, and once this history is lost, it's going to be gone,” she said.

Sue said the Nanaimo Chinatown Heritage Foundation is trying to save the building at 880 Hecate St. with the hopes of being able to turn it into a multi-cultural community space.

“So my vision is hopefully with that building, maybe that could be the recentering of a Chinese presence or a multicultural presence, have it as a multicultural hall with First Nations storytelling, have Japanese come and do you know, like maybe tea ceremonies or just some cultural event,” she said.

With a price tag over $600,000, Sue said they have looked into grants and asked other philanthropy groups to help purchase the building, but many of the grants they are looking at require the building to have a heritage designation.

The building at 997 Hecate St. (pictured in 2026) was built in 1930 to be used by the Chinese Freemasons before they moved into the 880 Hecate St location. (Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm)

Sue said in Nanaimo, the building needs to be part of the Community Heritage Register.

“I was given the list of it by a city planner, all the buildings are European, and they're like Edwardian style buildings and that's all very historical,” she said. “How about the other cultures and the buildings and the spaces that they used, and how about putting some recognition for that.”

To get started, Sue said the heritage foundation needs to write a statement of significance to the City of Nanaimo. If they get the designation they will start fundraising to pay the $614,000 price tag.

She said along with applying for heritage grant programs from both the provincial and federal government, she has already spoken to many philanthropy groups who are willing to financially support a project like this.

“There's the Chinese-Canadian funders that want to preserve their whole mission is to have Chinese diaspora recognised,” she said.

While she is positive that they will be able to fundraise the complete amount, the heritage foundation is still asking the City of Nanaimo to fund around ten per cent of the cost. Approximately $60,000.

“The community has told me ‘this is our space, we want it to have it as our space,’ because in a way [the building at 880 Hecate st.] the price for $614,000 is not insurmountable, so you could just go and just get enough funders to buy the building upright,” Sue said. “But it's more reflective of the community if it's from the City of Nanaimo.”

She said she has already sent out emails to mayor and council, as well as city planners to update them about what they are trying to achieve. As well, the heritage foundation is gathering research and testimonies to work towards their goal of saving the building.

“We're at the point where July is when we do the heritage statement, so we've got all the research and people's stories coming out, and present that as to ask to be on the registrar. Then we have a delegation for September to ask the mayor and council, ‘can we ask you to save the building and maybe purchase part of it, so it's under the city of Nanaimo with other funders.’ So that's pretty much the timeline.”

Sue said as she continues to talk with people and hear the history of the Chinatowns, she sees the importance of saving these buildings.

“It's worth it for me to put aside my sleep, my weekends, my summer to see if this can be done,” she said. “I would be very sad if it's not preserved, because then it just sort of shuts that piece of history down, and says that we don’t need this history, and I would be very, very disappointed.”

More information about the Nanaimo Chinatown Heritage Foundation can be found at www.nanaimochinatownheritage.com.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.