In Stockton, California, a community group is fighting to restore and preserve Little Manila, one of the oldest Filipino immigrant communities in the US.
The Little Manila Foundation aims to raise $2 million to purchase several buildings that constitute historic Little Manila. The first on their list is the Mariposa Hotel, a former "residence hotel that also served as a headquarters to labor unions and other organizations when Stockton was home to the largest population of Filipinos outside of the Philippines," describes the Recordnet. They hope to convert Mariposa into a community space and museum, then preserve the only two other remaining buildings of historic Little Manila-- the Rizal Social Club and the Emerald restaurant.
Stockton was a destination for Filipino Americans laboring in the Central Valley in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Little Manila, recently recovering from a redevelopment plan to demolish the area, was once "full of pool halls, hotels, churches, grocery stores, barbershops" which residents build "after being banned from other parts of the city," according to Recordnet. In 2003, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed Little Manila on the list of the 11 Most Endangered Places.
According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation website, in April the Manila Foundation was in risk of foreclosure, as it was "still struggling to obtain financial backing to rehabilitate and adaptively reuse the Little Manila buildings," although the Recordnet article makes it sound like they are still active. I've contacted the Foundation and will post an update, when I hear back from them.
Posted by melanie at July 2, 2007 12:42 PM
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