# @toronto_archives on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DcBX1XWIBPX
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/69260973-toronto-archives-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/0e948a7c8c.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-08-14T13:04:16.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** City of Toronto Archives (@toronto_archives) — https://gondola.cc/toronto_archives

## Caption

New exhibit coming soon: Let’s Build a Collective Memory of Chinatown!

Kwong Chow, Lichee Garden, Sai Woo, Nanking Tavern, Charlie’s Meat and Seafood, Pearl Court Restaurant, Rol San. What do they have in common? They stood across Old Chinatown, Chinatown East and Chinatown West. And now, all of them are gone.

This project presents miniature models of these seven important Chinatown sites, assembled from community memory and archival records, alongside some of the records used in their creation. In 2024 and 2025, the models were the focus of intergenerational storytelling sessions where memories of Toronto’s Chinatowns were shared by over 200 people across four generations at Cecil Community Centre and Scadding Court Community Centre. Together, these memories honour Chinatown’s past while reminding us that Chinatown’s story is still being written every day.

Opens August 28 until February 26, 2027. Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free Entry.

1. Model of Lichee Garden, opened 1948. Photograph by Fred Hunsberger.

2. Nanking Tavern, Fonds 351, File 4, Item 8. 

3. Music in cocktail bars - Lichee Gardens, July 28, 1948, Fonds 1266, Item 126895.

4. Model of interior of Kwong Chow Chop Suey House, opened 1959. Photograph by Fred Hunsberger.

5. The Nanking Tavern, 77 Elizabeth Street, additions and alterations, Melick and Sundstrum, Architects, 1954-1956, Fonds 200, Series 410, File 4628.

6. Old Chinatown survey, 1991, Fonds 2043, Series 2523, File 1716, Item 2.

7. Lichee Garden, 118 Elizabeth Street, 1953, Fonds 1268, Series 1317, Item 1086. 

#TOhistory #TorontoArchives

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## Tags

torontoarchives, tohistory

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