The Fritz Family collection consists of photographs, papers, and artifacts left behind by three generations of the Fritz Family in Los Angeles. It is arranged at a series level. This collection is important to CHSSC because it gives a glimpse into the life of Angelenos who lived in the area of Chinatown before it was known as such, reveling hidden connections between French American and Chinese American communities in Los Angeles. French immigration was at a high during the 1850s to 1860s, making the French the fastest-growing immigrant population in L.A. at the time. Many of these immigrant French Angelenos settled east and southeast of the Pueblo Plaza. Around the same period, the Chinese immigrant community also grew in response to poor conditions in China, and America’s demand for cheap labor. The construction of Union Station in the 1930s destroyed the city’s original Chinatown and many French boarding houses and hotels around Alameda and Aliso streets. Many Chinese-Americans moved into the old French quarter, and the area soon transformed into today’s Chinatown.

https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c83f4wzr/?query=Fritz+Collection