Following disaster, Chinese built Locke in 1915

This 1933 photograph shows a man walking down an alley in Locke, the tiny Delta community northwest of Lodi that achieved fame as the nation's only town settled and inhabited totally by Chinese. (Courtesy photo/Pacific Historian)

Following disaster, Chinese built Locke in 1915

By Ralph Lea and Christi KennedySpecial to the News-Sentinel

Saturday, December 15, 2007 6:31 AM PST

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The tiny community of Locke, the nation's only town built exclusively by Chinese for Chinese, was born from the ashes of a disaster.

Chinese immigrants first came to California during the Gold Rush, and their numbers grew in the 1860s as many Chinese laborers were hired to build railroads. As this work lessened, the Chinese turned to levee-building in the Delta and farm labor. So many settled in the fertile farmland of the Delta region northwest of Lodi.

Walnut Grove was established along the Sacramento River in about 1851 when John Sharpe set up a boat landing on what he must have hoped would be a profitable shipping route. It turns out the narrow waterway was a poorly traveled, but the little town grew as land reclamation projects of the 1860s took hold and farming developed.

By the 1890s, four canneries were operating around Walnut Grove. Pear orchards, asparagus fields and packing sheds were thriving and all needed workers. The Chinese population in Walnut Grove and nearby Isleton and Courtland increased, and growing numbers of Japanese workers also came to settle in the Delta towns.

But Walnut Grove was ripped apart on Oct. 7, 1915, when a disastrous fire, whipped into a frenzy by Delta winds, destroyed more than 85 buildings in a three-block-square area known as Chinatown.

Lee Bing, owner of a gambling house, managed to save some clothes, a chair and table, his wife's jewelry and four buckets of coins and paper money from his office safe. He took the buckets to the levee, placed a blanket over the top, and returned to the fire to get more belongings. However, the intense heat turned him back. He rushed back for his buckets and found them empty; someone had taken the money that totaled between $6,000 and $8,000, according to his son Ping Lee's recollection in the book "Bitter Melon."

One account stated the fire started when an oil stove being used to cook fish became enflamed, and another account blamed the fire on a cigarette lit inside a cleaning establishment. Whatever the cause, the fire left Lee Bing and Walnut Grove's large Chinese population without homes and businesses.

There were two groups of Chinese in Walnut Grove. Most of the Chinese immigrants in California were from the Zhongshan and Sze Yap regions south of Hong Kong, China. Although the two were close to each other, the dialects were different enough to make these neighbors more like foreigners. So each group tended to stay together.

After the fire, the Zhongshan group decided not to rebuild in Walnut Grove but instead to move one mile upriver along the Sacramento to a pear orchard ranch owned by George Locke, a descendent of Lockeford's founding family. Apparently, they wanted to follow three Zhongshan men who built a boarding house, saloon and gambling house there in 1912 near the small wharf where asparagus and celery were shipped.

During that time period, Chinese were forbidden to own land under the Alien Act and Chinese Exclusion Act laws, so they could only rent land. "Charlie" Lee Bing was one of several in a delegation that met and shook hands with George Locke on rental agreements. Within a year, the new settlement of Lockesport was built on the river's east side about 30 feet below the levee road. The town's name was soon shortened to Locke.

All the buildings were wood and faced Main Street. The street was only 30 feet wide including the wooden sidewalk. The second story balconies on each side nearly touched in the rear alleys. Fears of fire were eased by the "bok bok man", a night watchman who sounded his "all's well" call by knocking a stick against a wood box every half hour.

Lee Bing built six two-story buildings for $1,200 each. Bing, who led the effort to settle Locke, was finally allowed to become a U.S. citizen in 1943. His son, Ping Lee, graduated from University of California at Berkeley in 1941 but returned to Locke, eventually becoming known as the town's spokesperson and unofficial "mayor."

Locke started with 10 families living over their businesses. At its peak, Locke consisted of nine grocery stores, six restaurants, a bakery, post office, a town hall, a Chinese school, a church and a theater. During the Prohibition years from 1919-1933 when it was illegal to manufacture and sell alcohol, Locke was a safe and profitable place to establish speakeasies.

After liquor was again legalized and after World War II, the population dropped from 5,000 to a little over 1,000 residents.

As the children of Locke's founders grew up, they went away to college or military service and saw life outside the tight Chinese community. They began to move away, and Locke's population diminished. Today, the small town has fewer than 100 residents and only a few are Chinese. One of Locke's lasting and well-known businesses is Al's Place.

In 1934, Al Adami and an associate came up from nearly Ryde and bought the Chinese restaurant Bing and his partners ran. Al's Place became the only non-Chinese business in Locke. Later Adami bought the building and operated the restaurant famous for its pasta and steak until his death in 1961. Al was a colorful personality who added unique charm to Locke with the bar/restaurant where patrons had their neckties cut off and dollar bills were thrown and tacked to the ceiling, a sight that leaves many to wonder how they got up there. Al's Place continues in operation in its original location on Main Street.

But Locke's unique history as the nation's only town built exclusively by Chinese for the Chinese has not been overlooked. Locke was named to the National Register of Historical Places on Aug. 2, 1970. The town also was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990.

In 1977, a Hong Kong-based developer bought the town and sold it in 2002 to the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. In 2004, the agency allowed those who had been living in Locke for many years to buy the land. Plans also are underway to convert a boarding house into a museum.

Information for this article was obtained from The Pacific Historian, vol. 30 #4 winter 1986, Bitter Melon by Jeff Gillenkirk and James Motlow, and Delta Country by Richard Dillon and Steve Simmons.

Vintage Lodi is a local history column that appears on the first and third Saturday of the month.

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