Redlined L.A. & the Chinese American Doctor - Bunker Hill, Chinatown & Beyond in the 20th Century

This post grew out of a curiosity about the important man who introduced me into the world:  my mother's obstetrician.  Dr. Samuel Yen Eng was one of two L.A. Chinatown doctors in the 1950s and 1960s who practiced western medicine (as I had heard growing up).

Dr. Samuel Yen Eng, M.D. (1905-1972)

Dr. Eng was born in San Francisco.  In 1928, he completed the four years of study at the College of Medical Evangelists, and he was on his way to being a physician in his early twenties!  The names of his graduating class were listed in the San Bernardino Sun newspaper, and he appeared to be the only Chinese student.  The college later became Loma Linda University's School of Medicine.

Los Angeles Redlining Practices of 1939

Unbeknownst to him, throughout his life he traversed around a secret color-coded housing and mortgage lending landscape established by the government-sponsored Home Owners' Loan Corporation.  By tracking his addresses through the federal censuses, it is easy to determine that he lived and worked in or near redlined areas shown on a 1939 residential security map of urban Los Angeles - that is, pockets of the county shaded Red - deemed "hazardous" and least desirable in livability.  The criteria was based on the race of residents, and areas populated by people of color.  In comparison, the Yellow-shaded areas were defined as area "in decline" and not as bad as the Red areas. For a concise explanation with a high-rez map available, visit here.

Published by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation

Boyle Heights

After graduating from medical school, he and his wife Helen resided in Boyle Heights likely because Dr. Eng was working nearby at White Memorial Hospital that was founded by his alma mater.  A 1930 occupational directory listed him at 2032 E. First Street.  Another address pinned them at Michigan Avenue and Echandia Street as renters with another couple who were both also in the medical field.  Their nearby, non-Asian neighbors were medical professionals, too. (Source:  1930 Federal Census).  By 1939, the redlining policy relegated all of Boyle Heights to Red, the worse grade on the residential security scale.

City Market and the East Adams Neighborhood

Chinese Americans settled near the 1909 City Market, and a Chinese American enclave extended south about 1920 along East Adams Boulevard near San Pedro Street.  The population shift stemmed, too, from the clearance of Old Chinatown beginning in 1933.

(My parents' rental at 812 E. 21st Street in East Adams was where I was brought home as a newborn.  It was from Jenny Cho's 2005 book Revisiting East Adams that led me to realization that I was a part of that community.)

All of the East Adams area was graded Red.

The 1938 city directory listed Dr. Eng's residence at 3725 Dalton Avenue, near Exposition Boulevard & Western.  The area was graded Red.  The listing also indicated his medical office was at 1057 South San Pedro Street -  the epicenter of Chinese businesses located near the City Market.  Various occupational directories and city directories between 1933 through 1942 placed his long-established practice here.

Compton/Willowbrook

He was a homeowner by 1940 at 1919 East 122nd Street in Compton (Source:  1940 Federal Census).  It must have fit his growing family of four children.  The property hadn't been redlined because it was defined as "industrial."

In 1948 a Supreme Court ruling made illegal the practice of placing restrictive racial housing covenants in property deeds, and this practice was a parallel discriminatory tactic against fair housing.  The ruling was a starting point though it would take many more decades to eliminate redlining and these covenants.

Meanwhile, the doctor, who was also a returning veteran, moved west to 2033 El Segundo Boulevard, Willowbrook (Source:  1950 Federal Census).  This site was considered "agricultural" in the 1939 redlining map.  Today the address no longer exists, and a tract development took its place.  Noteworthy was the proximity of his house to the 1926 Western Avenue Golf Course - stray golf balls could have landed in his yard.  Did the doctor play golf?

The "New Chinatown" Doctors

During the war period what doctors cared for the Chinese community?  Families & babies managed to grow despite the Chinese exclusion immigration policy. 

It is unclear of the exact year in which Dr. Eng moved his practice to New Chinatown.  The vicinity of North Broadway & Macy Street (Macy is now Cesar E. Chavez Avenue) became New Chinatown by 1950.  Prominent Chinatown doctor, Julius F. Sue, set up his practice here in the 1950s.

Dr. Eng was listed in the May, 1956 city directory at 431 Bernard Street.  (In the 1939 redlining map Bernard Street provides a boundary for a Red zone - no surprise here.)  He remained here until his death in 1972.

His office operated out of an 1892 Victorian house.  Today the house still stands and is a few doors down from the headquarters of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California.  I vaguely remember being in the waiting room.  I also remember Dr. Eng making a house call when my two brothers and I were sick.

Dr. Eng attended to my birth as well as my two brothers at the German Hospital - in the Boyle Heights neighborhood he was long familiar with.

The World War II Draft and the American Legion

Dr. Sue was just graduating from high school in 1934 when Dr. Eng was a young doctor, and they both served in the military throughout World War II.  According to Duty & Honor:  a Tribute to Chinese American World War II Veterans of Southern California (edited by Marjorie Lee), about 13,499 Chinese living in the U.S. had served in the war, and over 500 were from southern California.  Four individuals were medical doctors, and Dr. Eng had by far more experience than the other three degreed soldiers.  Dr. Sue is remembered for many accomplishments, such as founding the Chinese American Medical Association of Southern California.  

Dr. Eng turned 35 years old shortly before the draft, and he held the rank of Major in the Army Air Corps.

Courtesy of Duty & Honor, p. 112
(Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, 1998)

In 1946 upon his return from war the doctor organized and was the first commander of the American Legion's newly established Chinese American post.  Interestingly, he established their headquarters along the same block where his medical practice was before the war.

Courtesy Duty & Honor, p. 29

Investing in Bunker Hill and the Alta Vista Apartments

About the time the restrictive racial covenants were outlawed in the U.S. in 1948, locally the city of Los Angeles announced the wholesale clearance and redevelopment of blighted Bunker Hill in downtown.  Though redlined as a Red zone in 1939, at some point in time Dr. Eng and other investors purchased the Alta Vista Apartments at 255 South Bunker Hill Avenue.

Courtesy of the California State Library

The 1903 Alta Vista was worn out by the late 1950s, and it was a place that inspired novelist John Fante from his transient, brief stays there between 1933 and 1934.  The building was a film location for the 1951 film noir by Columbia, called "M."

The income property became an ill-fated investment.  A lawsuit by Dr. Eng, et al, against the city's Board of Building & Safety Commissioners was decided in 1960, after the building was earmarked for demolition in 1959.  A case summary can be read here.

Only the fictionalized Alta Vista endures.  It is doubtful that the doctor was aware of the building's significant role in Fante's story, Ask the Dust.  The novel, little-known when published in 1939, garnered widespread fandom in the years after the doctor was no longer living.

Noteworthy: the legal counsel for his case was another war veteran Hiram W. Kwan from the Chinatown law firm of Kwan, Quon, Cohen and Lum.  Kwan died in December, 2021 after a long life of community and patriotic service.  He was born in Cuba, and upon residing in his new city of Los Angeles, he lived in the East Adams district at 757 E. 20th Street (Source:  1940 Federal Census).

Final Resting Place

As today I live next to the largest cemetery in the world, it is not really surprising to know that Dr. Eng is nearby at Rose Hills Memorial Park.  It is prime real estate.

Photo courtesy of Chris Sandoval, Find A Grave