New Chinatown

The West Argyle Street District (also known as "Little Saigon", "New Chinatown", "Argyle Square", "Asia on Argyle", or "Argyle Park") is a historic district in the northern Uptown area of Chicago.
The area covered by the district originally developed in the 1880's as a suburb called Argyle Park. The suburb had been named by Chicago Alderman and developer James A. Campbell for his ancestors the Dukes of Argyll in Scotland. Development was centred on a station on the new Chicago & Evanston line of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway that opened in May 1885. The village, along with the rest of the Lake View Township, was annexed into Chicago in 1889. In 1908 the Northwestern Elevated Railroad was extended north from Wilson Avenue, using the tracks of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, This linked the suburb into Chicago's 'L' network, and the area became popular with people of limited means who wanted to live on the Lake Michigan shore. The railroad tracks were elevated onto an embankment between 1914 and 1922.
In the 1960's, local restaurateur Jimmy Wong bought property in the area and planned its rebirth as New Chinatown. He envisioned a mall with pagodas, trees and reflecting ponds to replace the empty storefronts. The Hip Sing Association, a Chinese cultural group, moved its Chicago offices to Argyle Street in 1971, and by 1974 Wong and the Hip Sing Association owned 80% of the three-block stretch on Argyle. Wong had an accident and broke both hips, leaving him unable to follow through on his plans. In 1979 Charlie Soo, founder of the Asian American Small Business Association, took up the cause, and the area developed not solely as a Chinese enclave but also including Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, and Japanese businesses. Soo campaigned to get the Chicago Transit Authority to give the Argyle 'L' station a $250,000 face-lift, then in 1981 he started the "Taste of Argyle," an annual food festival. He also secured funds from Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne to fix the sidewalks, and later from Mayor Harold Washington to repair building facades. Because of his tireless work in promoting the neighbourhood, Soo would later be known as the unofficial "Mayor of Argyle Street." By 1986 it was estimated that Uptown had about 8000 Chinese and Vietnamese residents.
The concentration of Vietnamese restaurants, bakeries and shops, as well as Chinese, Cambodian, Laotian and Thai businesses along Argyle Street, centred on the Argyle 'L' station has led to the neighbourhood being nicknamed New Chinatown, Little Saigon, or Little Vietnam.
Until recently, this area was off-limits to Kindred, by order of Lodin himself. The few desperate Licks who did try to hunt here over the years all disappeared without trace. Recently, however, the Prince has relented, though the paranoid and superstitious Kindred are still wary of the area.