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Waverly Place: more than just a Chinatown Alley with a Sordid History

Waverly Pl was far more than just an alley in San Francisco. During the earliest days of San Francisco, it was apparently known as "Pike Street", at least until the 1906 Earthquake. I cannot find any historical references on when the name was changed. Many references imply state "Waverly Pl, (formerly Pike St.) while other references imply stated Pike St. Even from the earliest days in Chinatown, it was known as a place of brothels, and allegedly both Bella Cora and Ah Toy, the two most famous madams of Chinatown, have brothels at or very close to Pike St. (later Waverly Pl).

For a while, the brothels co-existed with barbers on the same street, where sailors and miners can get a haircut and a shave for 5 cents, and later, 10 cents. So the area was also known as Five Cent Street or Ten Cent Street for a while. But the street remained mired with vices. 

A "crime map" prepared for SF City Supervisors in 1885, note the blue and red vices mapped. 
courtesy Cornell University PJ Mode Collection

The field was reset after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, as 80% of San Francisco, and all of Chinatown, was leveled or left in ruins. The city, after failing to evict the Chinese several times in the past decades, tried again, but met "The Chinese Six Companies" and their best negotiator: Look Tin Eli (surname Lu / Look). Born in the US in 1870, Look was sent back to China just prior to the Chinese Exclusionary Act, so he can learn Chinese. He had to sue the US government in 1884 to return to the US, and it also set the precedent that all children born in the US are US citizens. Look negotiated with the city, derailing its plans to relocate Chinatown elsewhere. Instead, Look proposed a vision of a rebuilt but tourist-friendly Chinatown, "fairy palaces filled with the choicest treasures of the Orient". But Look also know that the building had to be designed by Western architects to be acceptable to the city. The city eventually got T. Paterson Ross, a well-known architect, to help Chinatown start rebuilding, and the first two buildings at Tsing Chong and Tsing Fat were rebuilt across from Old St. Mary's Church at the corner of Grant and California. And the rest of Chinatown, esp. Waverly Place, soon followed. 

Today, Waverly Place is known as the "Street of Painted Balconies". However, the term was in use since the 1890s. 

For people who read Amy Tan's "Joy Luck Club", one of the characters was Waverly Jong, daughter of Lindo Jong. And yes, Waverly was indeed named after the street by her mother. 


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Kasey is a professional tour guide and amateur historian who specialized in Chinatown History and Tours. You will often find him guiding groups sampling delicious food and learning interesting historical tidbits about Chinatown most weekends.

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