BRIEF CHINATOWN HISTORY Chinatown started on Carrall and Dupont (which was named East Pender after 1904) in 1886. By the 1890s, the population of Chinatown increased by more than a thousand people. In about the 1940, more shops, buildings, restaurants and many other businesses started to appear on the west side of Carrall Street. On 7 September 1907, members of the Asiatic Exclusion League marched to Chinatown where they beat up dozens of Chinese, wrecked stores and smashed windows. Order was not restored for several days. In 1896, six prominent merchants, namely Yip Sang, Shum Moon, Wong Soon King, Lee Kee, Chow Tong and Leong Suey, founded the Chinese Benevolent Association, and erected a building in 1910 to serve as its office as well as a Chinese Hospital. During the 1910s and 1920s, many association building were built according to western architectural conventions it some unique Chinatown features.