“What was Rochester’s first Chinese restaurant?” I figured that the answer was going to be fun and interesting. And the answer is, indeed, very interesting! The fun, however, is slightly tempered by one major, but familiar factor: racism.

I shouldn’t have been surprised, really; the late 19th century and early 20th were a hotbed of anti-Chinese sentiment, espoused in everything from song and poetry to the courts of law. The 1880s witnessed the birth of the Chinese Exclusion Act, its extension under the Geary Act, and its permanent solidification in 1902.

The story of our central characters just so happen to overlap entirely with these lamentable events, and as such what should have been an intriguing look at the history of a familiar place–the everyday Chinese restaurant–instead encapsulated much more: a family’s suffering, struggling for a place in our city and our nation, ending in heartbreak.

Through it all, the newspapers articles laid the racism on thick. Even ostensibly positive coverage of events in the lives and business of our major Chinese-American players was rife with the most cringeworthy of anti-Sinic language and descriptions.

History’s like that, though, especially as represented through the contemporary press. So I share these articles somewhat shamefacedly, knowing that even while they contain the content I’m trying to research, they also contain a seemingly-endless stream of ethnic stereotypes and “tongue-in-cheek” turns of phrase that, er, wouldn’t land today.

If you’d rather not read that sort of thing, I don’t blame you; and yet, woven throughout is the story of a man who sought opportunity, made a name for himself in a difficult situation, became a leader of his community, and tried to do right by his brothers, his wife, and his children. I feel like that story should be shared.

So let me introduce Lee Yune.

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Lee Yune

Lee Yune, as he was known in Rochesterian newspapers, was born in 1858; judging by the Cantonese dialect he and locals reportedly used, he was probably from Guangdong Province in the southeastern area of China.

Yune came to the United States sometime after 1882.

Lee Yune quickly set about attempting to make his way in business, in hopes of eventually bringing his wife, Wo Wan, from China to Rochester. At this point in Rochester’s history, only a couple dozen Chinese immigrants lived in Rochester, all of whom were male, and most of whom worked in the laundry industry if they were not merchants. A series of legal and social controls were in place to prevent the influx of Chinese immigrant labor from competing with the established majority-white workforce. Laundry work was unattractive to the white population, being tedious and dirty and labor-intensive, so Chinese immigrants taking up the task was not perceived as taking work from white men.

Lee Yune and a brother, Lee Sheen, took up this trade from their apartment on East Main Street, but seemingly pivoted early on to the import of goods from China and Japan. Although still having a toe in the laundry business, the Lee brothers became more well-known locally for their “bric-a-brac” shop, where intriguing arts and curios from China and Japan could be perused by Rochesterian customers.

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No. 359 East Main Street

Lee Yune and his brother Lee Sheen lived and worked as laundrymen at No. 359 East Main Street, in a building that was not long afterwards razed to make way for the construction of the Cutler Building in 1896.

Although by 1890 Lee Yune had already vacated to No. 193 State Street, the 1892 Sanborn map above marks the storefront at No. 359 East Main Street as being a “Chinese Laundry”. According to the 1892 House Directory, this would have been the laundry of Loy Quong, who must have rented the location after Lee Yune’s move to State Street:

Regarding “Celestials”: the article below marks the first of many usages we shall see of the term “Celestials” in reference to Chinese persons. This term came from a direct translation of one of the many traditional names of China, “The Celestial Empire“, or 天朝. Its eventual disuse makes it sound strange to modern ears, verging on perhaps a slur, but it was used seemingly without viciousness at the time.

The above article, as many writings concerning Chinese immigrants in this period were wont to do, makes numerous references to the narrative poem “The Heathen Chinee” by Bret Harte. Ironically, this poem was intended to satirize anti-Chinese sentiments and the uncharitable treatment of Chinese-Americans by white men, especially Irish-American workers who viewed them as encroaching on their fields of labor. As usual, however, the satire went unnoticed by the more bigoted elements of society, who gleefully used the lines and images conjured by the poem to stoke hatred and violence against the Chinese-American community.

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No. 193 State Street

After 1890, Lee Yune took his Chinese and Japanese import business to State Street, occupying a storefront and an apartment in the Walbridge Block, corner State and Allen Streets, next to the New York Central and Hudson Railroad tracks and bridge over State Street. Amusingly, the Walbridge did share a wall, with a bridge!

In the above ad, the Chinese characters are read right-to-left; the rightmost two, 源利, are the name of the proprietor, Lee (利) Yune (源). The latter two, taken individually, mean “to play with, to toy with” (玩) and “items, things” (物) Taken as a phrase, 物玩, this can mean “toys” or, more likely in this context, “novelties” or “curios”. Taken all together, 物玩源利 means something like “Lee Yune’s Novelties”

It was also suggested to me that a common shorthand for “everything” or “many things” is 萬物, or “10,000 things”. Being homophonic with 物玩, perhaps some confusion happened resulting in someting like “Lee Yune’s Shop of Many Things” being misprinted as the above characters. I don’t know how Chinese copy worked in 19th century local papers, so I can’t weigh in on the likelihood of that.

The below photo, from the 1893 “History and Commerce of Rochester” shows a view west down Allen Street from State Street; the building to the right would be Walbridge’s Block, and the shop marked in red No. 185 State Street, a stove store. Lee Yune’s store would have been three storefronts north, off the right-hand side of the frame.

Other photos I was able to find of the Walbridge Block were from 1913, six years after the death of Lee Yune, but they at least give a glimpse at the building in which he kept his Chinese and Japanese imported goods shop:

Another exciting thing about this location is that Lee Yune’s shop would have been open around the same time that the Bloxsom’s hairdresser was across State Street, in the Savoy.

Walbridge Block would be razed in 1936 to make way for a Texaco station.

The original railroad bridge over State Street is still extant, but now the Inner Loop bridge crosses south of it, its supports and ramps consuming the area that used to be the Walbridge Block and its surrounds:

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The Departure of Lee Sheen

In 1892, Lee Yune’s brother and junior business partner, Lee Sheen, returned to China on a business trip. During this time of intense restrictions on Chinese entry into the United States, it was somewhat uncertain whether this would be a one-way trip; difficulties could easily arise while attempting to re-enter American ports on his return. The same had recently happened to another employee of Lee Yune’s business, Hing Jow, who remained in China indefinitely upon being barred from return.

[A segment has been excised from this article to focus on relevant information.]

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The Arrival of Wo Wan

As of 1898, his fortunes as a local merchant seemingly secured, Lee Yune initiated the difficult process of bringing his wife over from China to join him in Rochester.

Wo Wan, like many Chinese emigrants to the area, had an incredibly long journey to reach her husband’s home in Rochester. Landing all the way on the west coast of Canada at Vancouver, British Columbia, she travelled east until she reached the home of a friend of Lee Yune’s at Montreal, Quebec, then making her way to the steamboat landing at Port Hope Harbour, Ontario, and finally crossing Lake Ontario to Rochester.

As the bird flies, this was a journey of over 2,600 miles without even taking into account the sea voyage from Canton, China to Vancouver, British Columbia. And despite the terrible length of the journey, the fear and uncertainty and travails, Wo Wan was nearly sent back to Canada upon reaching the Port of Charlotte, which would have inevitably meant her return to China.

In what seems like a spot of good luck, the restrictions on Wo Wan’s residency were all removed after Lee Yune showed documentation of their marriage in China. The only thing I can’t understand is why this article names her as “Gon See”, when all other sources name her “Wo Wan”. This is sort of a frustrating thing!

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The Chinese Restaurant

In 1899, Lee Yune branched out into another trade through which he could share the fruits of his unique heritage: he endeavored to open a restaurant serving a variety of Cantonese dishes. The restaurant was set up in the back rooms of Lee Yune’s import shop.

It’s amusing to me that this topic, my attempt to answer the question “what was the first Chinese restaurant in Rochester?” turned out to be such a small fraction of the overall story. Though it is fascinating to see these pair of articles discussing familiar Cantonese-style dishes with such awe and trepidation. Pressed chickens! Noodles!

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Lee Henry / Henry Lee

As if Lee Yune did not have enough on his plate with the import shop and the restaurant, he and his wife had a baby boy on November 6th, 1899. The child was named Lee Henry or, in “American” nomenclature, Henry Lee. The baby, being reportedly the first Chinese-American baby born in Rochester, was a subject of much fascination for the newspapers, who watched his every move.

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The Death of Lee Yune

Lee Yune died in 1907, of heart disease. He was 55 years old.

Through this sad account we learn a few things regarding Lee Yune before his death: he had had altogether four children, one of whom died in infancy. The first of these was Henry, of course, with records existing of a second son named Warren. A later article claims the name of the deceased daughter as Belle, which is confirmed by Mount Hope interment records. The surviving daughter was named Mee Yune.

There was some contradiction in these sources about whether Yune Lee was interred permanently at Mount Hope Cemetery, or whether his remains were returned to China by his family. A contact at the Friends of Mount Hope says that the records give no indication of his remains being removed for re-interment. I attempted to visit the site of his interment, “Sing Gr 4 R112 BB” at Mount Hope Cemetery, but was unable to locate any form of marker.

After Yune Lee’s death, Wo Wan and her children returned to China.

Though Wo Wan seems to have remained in her homeland, the two sons returned to the United States in 1915. Difficulties at re-entry nearly prevented Henry Lee from returning to Rochester, but some piece of photographic evidence secured his right to enter.

Nearly thirteen years later, in 1938, the daughter of Lee Yune, “Lee Mee Yune”, tackled her own difficulties proving her place as a citizen of the United States; her birth certificate having gone missing, it was down to her attorney John Scully to find documentation which would allow her permanent entry. This came in the form of the above 1907 article of the Democrat & Chronicle which detailed Lee Yune’s funeral.

The article above brings us some more information on Henry. Barring some misidentification by the newspaper, Henry Lee would, as of 1938, operate a laundry service at No. 220 State Street, just across the railroad tracks from his late father’s former storefront. Though unmentioned by other articles besides the above, Henry’s name seems to have also included “Wing”, by which he is listed in the directory as opposed to going by Henry.

Returning to this 1913 photo of State Street looking north, the building in which No. 220 State Street was appears to be this one just to the north of the railroad bridge:

One other discrepency gives me pause. Lee Wing is also proprietor of the laundry at No. 220 State Street in the 1913-1914 House Directory, supposedly before Henry Lee returned from China in 1915. Is Lee Wing in fact Henry Lee? Or someone entirely different?

Unfortunately, I can’t dig up any more info, so the story ends here. If this Lee Wing is our Henry Lee, then his name remains in the directory through 1940, but is omitted in editions after that. In the 1941 Streets Directory, Nos. 220 and 222 State Street are listed as “vacant”.

What happened to the children of Lee Yune and Wo Wan? Did they go on to have children of their own? Are their descendents still here, in Rochester, or in Guangdong? Did any old-timer ever tell a young one their memories of Lee Yune’s little shop on State Street? Or is it gone from memory entirely, left to the newspaper archives?

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