For Immediate Release:
Pacific Grove , CA; The Heritage Society of Pacific Grove proudly announces the resurrection of it’s popular historical lecture series. The lectures had been a Society tradition for more than a decade but has been on hiatus for the past couple of years. The first lecture in this new series features noted historian, author, and professor, Sandy Lydon who will delve into the interesting and provocative history surrounding the Chinese Village once located on the shorelines of Pacific Grove until it was mysteriously burned to the ground. Steve Honegger, President of the Heritage Society Board of Directors, comments, “The Society is excited to bring back the lecture series as it had long been an integral part of the Society’s programs and we are extremely honored to have Mr. Lydon as our first lecturer. He is one of the preeminent scholars in this field and a dynamic speaker.”
First Lecture Scheduled for Friday, March 12th, 7pm
The first lecture will take place on March 12, 2010 at 7pm, at the recently restored Performing Arts Center of Pacific Grove located at Pacific Grove’s Middle School, at 835 Forest Avenue, in Pacific Grove. Doors will open at 6pm.
The lecture will be free for members of the Society and $10 per person for non-members, $15 for couples. Students and active military will be $5 with appropriate identification. Alternatively, the Society is offering attendees the chance to become members of the Society for the remainder of the year at $10 for an individual membership or $15 for a family membership. The membership will include free admission to the lecture. Tickets and or memberships will be available at the door beginning at 6pm on the day of the lecture.
Ticket Information
Presale tickets or memberships can be purchased at the Pacific Grove Resource Center located at 667 Lighthouse Ave. (in the Gazebo) in Pacific Grove, directly adjacent to The Works Coffee Shop and Bookstore. For additional information call (831) 643-9900.
Please note: Due to the subject matter of this lecture it may not be suitable for young children.
First in a Series of Lectures
The Society will host a series of lectures to be held this year. Plans and negotiations are already taking place for a number of interesting presenters which will be announced in the coming months.
For additional information on the lecture content please contact Sandy Lydon at Salydon@aol.com
The Ghosts in the Flames: The May 1906 Fire and Pacific Grove’s Search for Its Chinese Legacy
From 1853 to 1907, the largest Chinese fishing community in Northern California thrived and prospered on the eastern edge of Pacific Grove. It was a village of families; children were born there (American citizens all) and the elderly died and were buried in a cemetery overlooking the sea. Isolation and a powerful landlord protected the village from the anti-Chinese hysteria that swept across California in the 1880s and 1890s. The Pacific Grove Chinese community was probably the closest the Chinese ever came in 19th century California to achieving their American Dream. The neighboring New England-like community became accustomed to the Chinese fishing boats and the sounds of Cantonese. And tourists on the Seventeen-Mile Drive oohed and aahed as they rode past. It seemed as if the Chinese had always been there and always would be.
The fire changed it all. On the evening of May 16, 1906, with the village filled with refugees from the earthquake and fire that had destroyed San Francisco’s Chinatown a month earlier, most of the village burned to the ground. A huge crowd of spectators laughed and shouted as they stood and watched the terrified Chinese residents scramble through the flames to rescue what possessions they could. The following morning, many of Pacific Grove’s white residents could be seen poking through the ashes looking for valuables that the Chinese had left behind. The community demanded that the Chinese not be permitted to return and the Chinese vowed never to leave. After a year marked by the region’s first civil disobedience, the Chinese reluctantly moved to a new site above McAbee Beach in Monterey, and the memory and history of the village went with them. Some descendants of the Chinese village moved into nearby hillside neighborhoods, while others retreated to San Francisco, leaving behind their hopes and dreams in the ashes overlooking the sea.
What happened? How did the relationship between the Chinese and their Pacific Grove neighbors turn so bitter? And what has happened since 1907? Where does the Lantern Festival fit in all this?
In a lively, slide-illustrated lecture, noted historian Sandy Lydon will explore the history of the village, the fire, and the aftermath that continues to linger.
Biography – Sandy Lydon
A native Californian, Sandy Lydon grew up in Hollister and is a graduate of UC Davis, Sacramento State University and the East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii. He is currently Historian Emeritus at Cabrillo College, Aptos, where he has taught Asian History, Asian-American History and local and regional history since 1968. He is the author of several books on the immigration of Asians to California including the award-winning Chinese Gold: The Chinese in the Monterey Bay Region, and The Japanese in the Monterey Bay Region: A Brief History. He is currently completing the history of the Japanese in the Salinas Valley for the Salinas Valley JACL: Valley of Hopes; Valley of Dreams: The Untold Story of the Japanese in the Salinas Valley.
He has received numerous awards including being selected by the Cabrillo College faculty, students and staff to receive the college’s annual Teaching Excellence Award and has been twice selected as the “Best College Teacher in Santa Cruz County” by a local newspaper. In 1987 he delivered the Third Annual Doc Rickett’s Memorial Lecture
He has lectured several times for the Heritage Society on subjects as various as the history of the Hopkins Marine Station and the story of the Ku Klux Klan on the Monterey Peninsula, and he returns to the subject of the 1906 fire with new insights and materials.
Note: the lecture reflects the opinion of the lecturer and not necessarily the views of the Heritage Society of Pacific Grove its officers or members.
