Chung Wah Gong Shaw (former CCBA headquarters)

16 Mott Street | Chinatown | built 1915

Open on the map4 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1883

   Tom Lee buys 16 Mott Street for $15,000 in one of Chinatown's first property purchases

   In 1883 Tom Lee, also known as Wong Ah Ling, who had reached New York in 1878, bought 16 Mott Street for $15,000. It was among the first documented real estate purchases by Chinese buyers on lower Mott Street, alongside grocer Wo Kee's purchase of 8 Mott. These sales mattered because Irish leaders at Transfiguration Church had recently rented a row of townhouses to keep Chinese tenants out.

   Source: National Register nomination

2. 1888

   The Chung Wah Gong Shaw opens a Chinese-style clubhouse at 16 Mott Street

   The Chung Wah Gong Shaw, the forerunner of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, had a Federal-period townhouse at 16 Mott Street enlarged in 1888 as its clubhouse. The New York Times described it that year as the first genuine Chinese building in the city. Chinese artisans carved the wooden balconies on its front, though the nomination finds that the structure was really an older townhouse that was renovated.

   “…the Chung Wah Gong Shaw at 16 Mott being constructed as “the first genuine Chinese building New York”…”

   Source: National Register nomination

3. 1896

   A fourth floor with parapet towers is added for the CCBA at 16 Mott

   Kurtzer and Rohl had raised the former Federal townhouse to three stories in 1888, and in 1896 it gained a fourth story with towers at the parapet. The district inventory dates the building's use by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association to 1899, the year Chas. Reid added a cast-iron storefront. It is described as originally a two-and-a-half-story house from about 1820.

   Source: National Register nomination

4. 1959

   The CCBA leaves 16 Mott for a larger headquarters at 62 Mott Street

   Founded in 1883 as an umbrella group for New York's Chinese community, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association became the unofficial government of Chinatown. It ran its affairs from 16 Mott Street for decades, in a building credited to Chinese tradesmen. In 1959 it moved to a new, larger home at 62 Mott Street.

   Source: Internet Archive

Further reading

• Mott Street, between Grand & Hester StreetsPlace Matters

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All 93 buildings with stories in Chinatown