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Salinas Chinatown Cultural Center

It was the community’s hope that the restoration and adaptive reuse of the Old Republic Cafe would serve as the impetus for the further revitalization of Chinatown. We worked with the Asian Community Enterprise (ACE) group, a non-profit organization, and the City of Salinas.  We determined that the Salinas Asian Cultural Center would be a place that tells the story of the Chinese, Japanese and Filipino, and Bracero people who settled the neighborhood and gave it life. The community identified the Old Republic Cafe, located along Soledad Street, as a Chinatown landmark. They identified it as being readily available for adaptive reuse with significant historical architectural character that was preserved.  The kitchen area and living quarters of the existing building will be restored into an exhibition space allowing visitors to see how people lived and worked when Chinatown was a thriving neighborhood.  There will also be space for future expansion into the adjacent building on one side, and on vacant land on the other.