The Chinese of South Tucson are normally lumped into the greater Tucson Chinese population, but I think they need to be researched and written about as their own community. Over the years I have continually run across references to the Chinese community in South Tucson. This isn’t an exhaustive description of this community, just a starting point for another researcher.
South Tucson was incorporated in 1936. I believe it had a significant Chinese population at one time but according to the 2000 and 2010 Census its population is less than 1% “Asian.” I know that in the 1940s the Don Wah family lived in South Tucson near the Soleng Center which was owned by their son-in-law Soleng Tom.
Below is information on the South Tucson Chinese I have run across:
The ACE Market, located at 2702 S. 4th Ave., opened in 1962 and closed in 1983. The owner, Ray Tom, had an earlier ACE Market at 406 S. Meyer and, in the early 1960s, he also owned Ray’s Market at 910 W. Congress. Mr. Tom was a veteran of World War II.
There were three A&A Markets in South Tucson from about the mid-1940s to 1981, all were owned by the Lee family. The earliest market, dating to the mid to late 1940s, was owned by Nin Lee and his wife Hom Ngan Oy. It was located at 527 W. 29th Street. In the early 1950s they moved just down the street to 449 W. 29th. This market closed in 1981. The building burned down in 1982.
The 2nd A&A Market, at 722 E. 36th St., was only about a mile from the A&A Market on 29th Street. It was owned by Ben John Lee, the son of Nin Lee and Hom Ngan Oy, and his wife Jade. It opened in or before 1956. I’m not sure when it closed. Property records indicate by 1979 it was a Tires Plus store. Ben Lee also owned the Ben Lee Market at 2440 E. 22nd. This market was active from the early 1950s until about 1964. When the building burned down in 1964, the new owner was Joe Wing.
Ben’s United Market & Discount Liquor: Over the years, the address for a market named the “United Market” varies in newspapers from 2500 S. 6th Avenue to 2424 S. 6th Avenue, however both addresses are the corner of 6th Avenue and 35th Street in South Tucson and are across 35th Street from one another.
The earliest reference I’ve found for a United Market, located at 2500 S. 6th Avenue, was an article about it’s opening in the Arizona Daily Star, January 20, 1939. The owner and operator at that time was Wong Mon Sinn. In 1942, Wong Mon Sinn and his partner Gin Lin Lai sold the business to Jin Kuo Doran (aka Don Ginn) and Ginn Yaw Taw (aka Johnny Ginn). In an interview with Ben Mar in the Arizona Daily Star on September 28, 1978, he says he opened the store at 2424 S. 6th 15 years before or in 1963.
Ben’s United Market, located at 2424 S. 6th Avenue is open, but I don’t know if it’s still Chinese owned. It was Chinese owned in 2016 when owner Mike Mar, “a third-generation market owner,” was interviewed for an article on the T&T Market (See link below).
Tucson’s first Chinese School started in 1926 when the Chinese Evangelical opened its doors. It was started to teach Tucson-born Chinese children enough Chinese to communicate when/if they were to visit China. This school was still active in the mid-1930s but, according to John Schweitzer in his 1952 thesis The Social Unity of Tucson’s Chinese Community, the classes were discontinued in the late 1930s because of the lack of a teacher. They were taught only sporadically until 1950 when they were revived by the Tucson Chinese Chamber of Commerce. The Chinese school board was headed by Soleng Tom who was later was a member of the Tucson Unified School District Board (1964 – 1980). Classes were held at the San Jose Mission at 1900 S. 6th Avenue, a short distance from the Soleng Center. In 1952 the mission was torn down. Where, if any, classes were held until the Chinese Community Center opened at 221 E. 6th in 1956, I don’t know. The school is now housed at the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center.
The El Grande Market #2 was opened in October 1958 by the Gee family and was located at 805 36th Street, near the Tucson Greyhound Park. At one time there were four El Grande Markets, all owned by the Gee family. Their other markets were located at 605 N. Grande Avenue, 4940 S. Park and 4229 E. 22nd Street. By 1992, the 36th Street store was the only one that remained open. On June 24, 1992 Fred Gee, the market manager, his elderly uncle, Zewan Huang, and Ray Arriola a market employee, were shot and killed in a robbery at closing time. By the end of July 1992, the family decided to close the store. The robbers, Christopher McCrimmon, Andre Minnitt and Martin Soto-Fong, a former store employee, were convicted of the crimes in 1993. Decades of legal maneuvering, including a decision by the Arizona Supreme Court in 1996 , have continued to keep the case in the public eye. McCrimmon was released in 2020. Minnitte and Soto-Fong are, as of February 2021, still in prison.
In 1921 20-year-old Jew Fow left his first wife in China and came to the United States. In 1930 he was working as a cook in Tucson. By 1933 the Tucson city directory lists him as the proprietor of the Independent Grocery, later known as the Independent Market, at 302 W. 29th Street. In 1940 his cousin, Fow Chow, was living with him at the store and working as his clerk. Tim Tai, Fow Jew’s new wife, arrived from China in 1950 and, for the first time since his arrival to the United States nearly 30 years earlier, he was able to have a family life. On October 24, 1956, the Independent Market was bombed. The Tucson Citizen states that “The Jew Fow and David Low families were awakened but uninjured by the blast which shattered a rafter and sent pieces of the ceiling flying about inside the market.” Investigators speculated that organized crime was responsible, but no one was ever charged with the crime. The market closed in the in the early 1970s. Fow Jew died in 1974; Tim Tai died in 2001. The building that housed the Independent Market for over 40 years and provided living quarters for the family was torn down in 2014.
Lee Goon/Lee Hop/Lee Fow Markets: According to the family, Lee Goon, the original owner of the market, started his business at 1600 S. 9th Avenue in 1926. He passed it on to his sons Lee Hop (Lee Hop Grocery and Meat) and Lee Fow. Now the location is occupied by the La Primavera Market.
Lee Wee Kwon: Born in China in 1878, Lee Wee Kwon came to Tucson in 1917 as one of more than 400 Chinese refugees General George Pershing evacuated from Sinaloa, Mexico. Once in Tucson, he joined fellow Lee clan members operating the Yan Lee Hing grocery at 556 N. Main. His son, Lee Wah Ying, later joined him in the United States. In 1920 they opened a store, Lee Wee Kwon Company, at the corner of S. 11th Avenue and 27th Street in what is now South Tucson. His store was in the Yaqui Village a few blocks southeast of the Papago Presbyterian Church which is now known as the Southside Presbyterian Church. Mr. Lee may have found this community familiar. He spoke Yaqui and the Yaqui were also refugees from Mexico. In 1932 he left South Tucson and opened a new store, Pay ‘N’ Save, at 37 S. Meyer. When he died in 1965, he was living in a nursing home in South Tucson.
Soleng Market/Center: In 1939, just 2 years after he took over the T&T Market from Gee Lim Poy, Soleng Tom opened the Soleng Market at 2300 S. 6th Avenue. In 1942 Tom sold the T&T Market and focused on the nearby Soleng Market. In 1948 the market transformed into the Soleng Center, Tucson’s first shopping center. It was located from 2300 to 2350 S. 6th Avenue. The Center contained a variety of different businesses: McKenzie’s Furniture, Crown Hardware and Variety, Parise’s Clothing Store, White Cloud Restaurant (Chinese and American food for eat in or take out), Sun Aire Sporting Goods, Soleng Barbershop, Cora’s House of Beauty, Soleng Market, and the Soleng Drug Store.
Its owner, Soleng Tom, was involved in the political and business life of South Tucson. In 1954 he was one of the founding members of the South Tucson Chamber of Commerce. He first fought to clean up the city government but by the mid-1950s, he came to favor the disincorporation of the city. He assisted in investigations that led to charges against city government officials.
The Soleng Center burned to the ground in a mysterious fire on May 25, 1958. Business destroyed in the fire were: Empire Drug Store, Crown Hardware, Ding How Café, Soleng Barber Shop, Parise Shoe Store, Community Finance Corporation, Marguerite’s Beauty Shop, and Fischer’s Bakery. The shopping center was never rebuilt.
The T&T Market was located at 2048 S. 6th Avenue in South Tucson. Built in the early 1930s, it was originally purchased by Gee Lim Poy. In 1937 Soleng Tom and his partner, C. Y. Tom became the owners of the market. In 1942 the Gee family acquired the market. It remained in their family for 75 years (3 generations) before it closed in 2016. As of December 9, 2020, the building appears to be unoccupied.
Tom’s Market: Tom’s Market was owned by Tom Wing Gain, son of Tucson grocer, Tom Loy. Born in China, he was brought to the US by his father as a small child. His brother, Tom June, took over the family grocery business, the Tom Loy Grocery at 326 N. 4th Ave., in the mid-1930s. In 1948 Tom Wing Gain opened his own store at 2320 S. 4th Ave., South Tucson. Tom Wing Gain’s store was less than ¼ mile from his cousin Soleng Tom’s mega-market, the Soleng Center, but his small market-out lasted the Soleng Center by 14 years, closing in 1972. The building is now (9/30/2020) home to a photography, video, and media company.
The Southside Presbyterian Church: The church located at 317 W. 23rd Street, opened in 1906. It was originally a mission church to the Tohono O’dham known as the Papago Presbyterian Church. The church history states that from the beginning they had Mexican and Chinese members. The church was visited by Martin Luther King in 1958 because he was interested in their racially mixed congregation.
Ying On Merchants and Benevolent Association: After the Ying On Compound/Tong House was torn down in the late 1960s to make room for the Tucson Convention Center, the Association moved their headquarters to 1935 S. 6th Avenue in South Tucson. It is still an active organization.
Resources
“A & A Market.” Tucson Chinese Cultural Center Post Collection, viewed on 9/14/2022 http://www.tucsonchinese.org/endowment/ Scroll down.
“Independent Market.” Tucson Chinese Cultural Center Post Collection. viewed on 9/14/2022 http://www.tucsonchinese.org/endowment/ Scroll down
“Lee Hop Market.” Tucson Chinese Cultural Center Post Collection, viewed on 9/14/2022 http://www.tucsonchinese.org/endowment/ Scroll down
Reitz, Del. “From the Bottom of Gold Mountain: A Biography of Soleng Tom,” Signature Design Associates, 1988.
Schweitzer, John Lewis. Social Unity of Tucson’s Chinese Community, Master’s Thesis, University of Arizona, 1952; viewed 9/14/2022 https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/551194
“T & T Market.” Tucson Chinese Cultural Center Post Collection. viewed on 9/14/2022 http://www.tucsonchinese.org/endowment/ Scroll down