Taken from the The Denver Public Library’s Digital Image Collection.
From the description:
View of Hop Alley (between Wazee and Blake Streets) in Denver, Colorado. Men who include a Chinese man and a police officer stand near the brick buildings. A sign reads: “1417 Wing Gut Clothing Co.” and has Chinese characters.
Hop Alley was Denver’s Chinese section of town, and got its name from the alley’s 17-odd opium dens. Supposedly there were also any number of secret tunnels and walkways into downtown’s more respectable joints.
Hop Alley was also the location of one of Denver’s race riots. In 1880, a fight broke out between a couple of white and Chinese pool players in John Asmussen’s Saloon. Though no one was hurt, word spread that the Chinese had killed a white man. A white mob formed and stormed Hop Alley, chanting, “Stamp out the yellow plague.” There were tens of thousands of dollars in damage to Chinese property, numerous beatings, and one lynching.
A few whites acquitted themselves well. As you’d expect, they were the prostitutes, gamblers, and saloon-keepers of Market Street, who provided refuge, clean sheets, and opium to Chinese folks hiding from the mob. A number of Madam Lizzie Preston’s girls even fought the mob off with champagne bottles.
Sir??? SIR!!! This is a no smoking zone!
Ha!