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Members of Pasadena’s Human Relations Commission are expected to finally decide Tuesday on new language that will replace the text on plaques along Mills Place in Old Pasadena where racial violence sparked a large fire and drove Chinese settlers away from Pasadena’s Chinatown 137 years ago.
Discussions about the plan started last year when a number of residents, aware of the history of Mills Place and the businesses that have existed there, notified some Pasadena City Council members that the existing plaques do not reflect what actually happened there at that time.
Mills Place was where a mob caused a fire in the Chinese-owned laundry in 1885 as they rioted across Old Pasadena. Matt Hormann, a freelance historian, wrote an article in Pasadena Weekly in 2015 where he described how the fire “turned Pasadena’s Chinatown into an inferno, obliterating it from the landscape, and, for many years, from the history books as well.”
Some 60 to 100 of Pasadena’s Chinese citizens fled the City to escape further violence, including the threat of lynching by white residents, and the mob looted other Chinese-owned businesses in the area. The day after the fire, city officials reportedly drafted an ordinance that would exclude Chinese immigrants from owning a business in the City.
No suspects were identified, arrested or charged for taking part in the violence, the 2015 article said.
One of the plaques on Mills Place says the area was named after a citrus farmer who started a grove on 7.5 acres of land in 1878, and mentions a fire in 1885 that destroyed the Chinese-owned laundry.
“Named for Alexander Fraser Mills, a nurseryman who planted a citrus grove on 7 ½ acres at the Northwest corner of Colorado Boulevard and Fair Oaks Avenue in 1878. Mills Place was originally named Ward Alley in 1885. A fire at this site destroyed a laundry owned by Chinese settlers,” the plaque reads now.
The Human Rights Commission on Tuesday will consider two proposed replacement texts, the first of which reads:
“MILLS PLACE – THE BACK STORY. DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF [insert actual names of the family], THE CHINESE IMMIGRANTS WHOSE LAUNDRY BUSINESS AT THIS SITE WAS RAZED BY A FIRE IN 1885 STARTED BY A MOB OF RACIST PASADENANS. THIS TRIBUTE ACKNOWLEDGES THE WORK AND SACRIFICE OF ALL CHINESE SETTLERS WHO HELPED TO BUILD OUR NATION, RECOGNIZES THEIR FORTITUDE, COURAGE AND RESILIENCE, AND THANKS THEM FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS. PASADENA’S MARCH TOWARD JUSTICE IS NOT COMPLETE AND MUST CONTINUE IN EACH GENERATION.”
The other proposed text reads:
“MILLS PLACE – THE BACK STORY . DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THE CHINESE IMMIGRANTS WHOSE LAUNDRY BUSINESS AT THIS SITE WAS RAZED BY A FIRE IN 1885 STARTED BY A MOB OF RACIST PASADENANS. THIS TRIBUTE ACKNOWLEDGES THE WORK AND SACRIFICE OF ALL CHINESE SETTLERS WHO HELPED TO BUILD OUR NATION, RECOGNIZES THEIR FORTITUDE, COURAGE AND RESILIENCE, AND THANKS THEM FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS. PASADENA’S MARCH TOWARD JUSTICE IS NOT COMPLETE AND MUST CONTINUE IN EACH GENERATION.”
Both proposed texts will include a QR code that viewers can scan to see a more detailed account of the history of Mills Place, the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting showed.
Members of the community may watch the deliberations starting at 6:30 p.m. via video conference at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
Live comments are welcome during the meeting. Comments may also be sent by email to tsabha@cityofpasadena.net.
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