UNION LAUNDRY The Story of Harry and May Yuen

Elwin Xie

If you were in Vancouver’s Chinatown in the early 1970s, standing on the corner of Union Street and Gore Avenue, you could not have missed the Prior Street on-ramp of the new Georgia–Dunsmuir viaduct. As you came off the viaduct, you would see our red brick Union Laundry building at 274 Union Street. Our home, business, and the rental house next door stuck out like sore thumbs: my father was still in dispute with the City of Vancouver long after our former neighbours had relocated to make way for the new viaduct. Fast forward to 2020. At our former laundry site is now Nora Hendrix Place, a temporary modular housing structure. Television reporters looking for Black Lives Matter stories frequently focus on this building named after the grandmother of musician Jimi…

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British Columbia History (Digital) - 1 Issue, 53.4 Winter 2020

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