How Toronto Bulldozed Its First Chinatown for City Hall | The Story of Old Chinatown

How Toronto Bulldozed Its First Chinatown for City Hall | The Story of Old Chinatown Toronto's famous City Hall sits on top of the city's first Chinatown. By 1965, two-thirds of it was gone, and 2 years later the city came back for the rest. We trace the Ward, Toronto's first immigrant neighbourhood, from Sam Ching's laundry in 1878 to the Elizabeth Street Chinatown, the 1947 vote to buy the land, the 1955 expropriations that cost about 500 jobs, and the 1958 design competition that drew entries from 42 countries. Then we follow Jean Lumb and the Save Chinatown Committee, who stopped the city from finishing the job in 1969. It ends where it starts: with artifacts from the Ward, dug up in 2015 and now on display inside the building that replaced it.