The Legendary Chinese Cemeteries of Browne's Addition: Is the first Rosauer's Supermarket really built over Chinese graves?

There is a real history of Chinese burial sites in Browne's Addition which may explain this legend. The following facts provide important context:

1. Like many Western towns at the time, Spokane had a significant population of Chinese immigrants in the 1880s. There were several hundred Chinese residents of Spokane before the fire, mostly young men who wanted to earn money overseas before returning home to settle down. They primarily resided in the area of Front Street (now Spokane Falls Boulevard) near Stevens Avenue. Developer W. C. Gray built "a row of five frame buildings" in this location in 1885, in an effort to "move Chinatown as far away from the center of the city as possible." Given the limited housing options available to Chinese people in Spokane, this strategy was an effective way to concentrate the population - although Spokane's rapid growth meant "Chinatown" was soon squarely in the middle of the busiest part of downtown.

2. In the early years of Spokane, there were no large perpetual-care community cemeteries. Fairmount Cemetery (today Fairmount Memorial Park) and Greenwood Cemetery (today Greenwood Memorial Terrace) were originally founded in 1888. Both were located at a distance from the city and had room for thousands of graves. People could purchase plots for their loved ones and receive a guarantee of ongoing cemetery maintenance from the managing organization. This stood in contrast to the existing pioneer and church cemeteries, which often used smaller patches of private land and had limited capacity.

3. Re-burial was more common in the 19th century than today. In the 21st century, the idea of moving a body from its final resting place is typically seen as something to be avoided unless absolutely necessary. To Americans in the 19th century, "translation" (as they called it) wasn't necessarily such a big deal. Cultural expectations around mortuary customs were changing rapidly, thanks in large part to the Civil War, which meant that many people were dying far from their homes for the first time in our history. 

4. Most Chinese immigrant laborers who died in the United States in the late 19th century were buried temporarily on American soil, then disinterred and repatriated to China a few years later. Bronson & Ho explain the emergence of this custom in their 2015 book, Coming Home In Gold Brocade: Chinese in Early Northwest America: "The custom called by anthropologists 'secondary burial,' whereby the bones of the dead are exhumed, cleaned, and then buried again, has long existed in Guangdong and adjacent parts of southern China. [...] The idea caught on quickly in North America. Although uncommon among overseas Chinese in some regions - it never seems to have become a regular practice of Chinese sojourners in Malaysia and South America, for instance - in the western U.S. and Canada the exhumation of the dead soon became an essential part of migrant workers' culture. When they arrived on the American side of the Pacific, they were told that burial back home was imperative in traditional Chinese culture. They may or may not have known this beforehand, but now they were obliged to buy a 'departure ticket,' which would pay the cost of repatriating bodies in case they died before returning home." (Bronson & Ho, p. 224-225)

One of the earliest mentions of secondary burial in Spokane newspapers is in 1890, when a Spokane Chronicle article mentions that agents have come to town in order to locate and repatriate the bodies of four railroad workers who were buried "not far from Hangman Creek." The article indicates that the "stated number of years" during which the bodies were supposed to be interred had expired in 1889, but does not specify when they were originally buried. This practice continued at least through 1926, when beloved Spokane doctor Hoy Chong Gar of the Wing Wo Medicine Company was interred in a vault in Fairmount: "Chinese delicacies were left on the steps of the vault, in which the body will remain for two years. At the end of that time it will be taken to China, accompanied by the family, where it will be buried."

The Real Chinese Cemeteries of Browne's Addition

Recollections of three early Spokane pioneers indicate that there were two locations within Browne's Addition where Chinese laborers were temporarily buried in the 1880s before being exhumed and repatriated to China. The earliest source is an article in the 1924 Spokesman-Review and its associated advertisement:. "Do You Remember: The Chinese cemetery? The Peaceful Valley slide? The racing stables? The old schoolhouse?" Two days later, Mrs. Mannheim's article was published: "Browne's Addition, my childhood home, was redolent with the odor of young pine forests and carpeted with wild flowers when I first saw it in spring of the year. [...] The old cemetery on the promontory at the foot of Second and Pacific avenues was Chinese, we were told, and we felt both awed and curious as we stepped about the shrunken graves. One of Spokane's fine homes now adorns this entire section."

The two later sources are Daniel H. Dwight and Lyman Reed, who arrived in Spokane in 1887 and 1888. In 1948, both Dwight and Reed were interviewed by writer Aubrey L. White for the Spokesman-Review. White said: "Recently on meeting D. H. White, one of Spokane's builders (who was here when I came in 1888), we were talking of the days just before and after the great fire of 1889 and he recalled the early-day funeral ceremonies of the Chinese here. They were buried with great pomp at what is now the end of Pacific Avenue."

Dwight went on to describe the Chinese funerals that he observed during his first years in Spokane, adding that, "We were informed that as all Chinese want to have their bones rest in their parental home, every few years these Chinese bodies were exhumed and the bones prepared properly and later shipped back to China."

White next interviewed Lyman Reed, a man who had grown up in Browne's Addition. According to White, "Lyman Reed readily recalled the old graves and gave me some of his remembrances of the burials." He quoted Reed as saying, "Shortly after J. J. Browne platted Browne's addition [...] our family moved to Spokane and my father purchased two lots at the northwest corner of Second avenue and Elm street. On that property he at once built a house, the fourth house to be erected in the district. I at once became acquainted with the Browne children and the oldest, Guy, and I were soon bosom friends and in playing roamed all around that end of town. [...] The entire tract was fenced and just inside of the fence at the end of Pacific avenue there were six or possibly seven graves, most of them enclosed by white picket fences. I was told that they were the graves of Chinese. A couple of years later the bodies were removed and I believe the bones were shipped to China."

Reed continued, "Later there were several Chinese burials on the Northern Pacific right of way south of the tracks and between Ash and Oak streets. Those Chinese funerals made a great impression on the boys in my crowd because all the Chinese in town would attend in carriages headed by a band. They would place roast chicken and all sorts of food on the graves so that the departed would have something to eat on their journey. Also joss sticks would be placed around the graves and many narrow strips of paper bearing Chinese characters and perforations would be scattered about."

Aubrey White then went to interview "some of the Chinese business men in the alley between Main and Trent, where I formerly knew the owners and bought Chinese ginger." They affirmed the secondary burial custom and explained some of the funeral traditions, although White noted that "the men are all now very modern, very well dressed and speak excellent English. They said they could tell me very little of the old customs as they are not followed now." The fact that White did not ask these businessmen anything about the Browne's Addition Chinese cemeteries seems to support the theory that they were long gone.

Given that 2 to 3 years is typically noted as the desired span between interment and disinterment in these cases, it seems very unlikely that any Chinese burial locations were still occupied in Browne's Addition by 1900. The need for a temporary resting place before returning to China was now being met by Fairmount and Greenwood. Browne's Addition, on the other hand, needed room to build and grow.

The Development of Browne's Addition

Daniel Dwight didn't have many neighbors when he first moved to Browne's Addition, but before long, he was surrounded by some of Spokane's most striking and notable historic homes. These include the Patsy Clark Mansion (1897), the Finch Mansion (1897), and the Campbell House (1898). There is no other place in Spokane where so many historically significant homes are grouped within just a few blocks, and the district is recognized today for its historic significance at both the city and national levels.

As the Gilded Age gave way to the 20th century, some of the prosperity drained away from Browne's Addition. Many of the large mansions were converted to apartments, and new construction after 1910 trended toward single-story cottages, bungalows, and multi-family units. The Browne's Addition nomination to the Spokane Register of Historic Places titles the section on 1910-1950, "Living Together, Living Modestly." While hardly a slum, it was no longer the Millionaire's Row that it had been at the turn of the century. It was in this era of the neighborhood that J. Merton "Mert" Rosauer opened his first Rosauer's supermarket in 1949, located on the corner of Third and Oak.

Where were the Chinese cemeteries and what happened to them?

Reed describes Browne reserving "a large tract at the west end of the addition for his own use. The tract included everything west from Chestnut street and between First and Riverside avenues, and all the rest of the addition lying west of about where Coeur d'Alene street is now located. The entire tract was fenced and just inside of the fence at the end of Pacific avenue there were six or possibly seven graves, most of them enclosed by white picket fences." This aligns with Mannheim's description of the cemetery as "on the promontory at the foot of Second and Pacific avenues." Based on their descriptions, the Pacific Avenue cemetery location with the white picket fences was close to the entrance of the Ridge Gated Condos today.

The second location, described by Reed as "on the Northern Pacific right of way south of the tracks and between Ash and Oak streets," is not within the bounds of Browne's Addition as they are typically recognized today. This edge of the district has always presented problems, as it abuts one of the major pathways into Spokane's downtown from the west. In the early 1900s, it was the West Road and the Northern Pacific railroad tracks. In the early 1910s, it was heavily regraded to create the new Sunset Highway (now known as Sunset Boulevard). It has since been reconfigured and re-graded several times to facilitate increased traffic. (None of these upheavals led to any reported body discoveries.)

Given the close proximity of Sunset Boulevard, the train tracks, and I-90, the area "south of the tracks" between Ash and Oak is an odd slice of land primarily used for commercial and industrial purposes. If we can place the original location of this second Chinese cemetery anywhere today, it is probably closest to being under the IntelliTect parking lot. However, as discussed earlier, there is no reason to believe that either of these two Chinese cemetery locations were occupied long-term. The balance of probabilities suggests that these bodies were removed and repatriated in accordance with the wishes of the deceased. If so, then anything built on those sites is merely built on a place where some bodies used to be - a distinction shared with many other Spokane buildings. (See "What's Under The Driveway? 19th Century Cemeteries in Spokane, Washington" on YouTube for more.)

Readers may have noticed that there is a gap of approximately fifty years between the last attested Chinese graves present in Browne's Addition and the construction of the first Rosauer's supermarket. The land in question did not lie fallow before the grocery store arrived. As of 1902, it was home to the W.J. Slater family. The Slater home continued to be used as a residence through the 1940s, when a used car lot is listed at that address. In other words, not only do we know that Rosauer's wasn't built on either of the locations identified as former Chinese cemeteries, we also know exactly what it was built on top of.

Legendary Implications

Although this urban legend centers on dead Chinese people in Spokane, the living ones never seem to be mentioned. Suggesting that Chinese bodies could be bulldozed without complaint not only implies an extreme degree of callousness from the theoretical white property developers, it also implies utter silence, ignorance, or complacency from the theoretical Chinese residents of Spokane.

None of this rings true to historical reality. Despite being deprived of essential rights by laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Alien Land Law, there have always been Chinese people living in Spokane and they have always taken good care of their dead. Even though newspapers used derogatory terms and a mocking tone when describing Chinese funerals in Spokane, it is clear from these articles that Spokane's early Chinese community treated its deceased members with dignity and respect. Even lepers, those who died penniless, and those who died from drug overdoses or suicide were provided with proper burials. As stated in Bronson & Ho (2015): "The typical early Chinese male immigrant did not die quietly, unnoticed, or forgotten. The rituals at and after his death were probably the most noticeable public events of his life" (p. 215).

Throughout the late 19th and early 20th century, Spokane even had a series of "mayors of Chinatown" who served as the liaisons (and fixers) between the Chinese community and City Hall. If the designated agents had never come to retrieve the bodies from the Chinese cemeteries in Browne's, a quick visit to the mayor of Chinatown would have ensured the bodies were swiftly disinterred and relocated - although depending on who was mayor at the time, the bodies may have taken a short and cheap trip to Fairmount or Greenwood rather than a long and expensive trip to Hong Kong.

Conclusion

Of course, anything buried can be forgotten and lost to time. The four men who were interred "not far from Hangman Creek" may never have been located. Human error and human greed can lead to situations where bodies are misplaced, mishandled, covered up, or destroyed. There are never conclusive and final answers in history, just answers that represent the best we can do with the facts that we have now. But in the case of the Chinese cemeteries of Browne's Addition, we have no evidence to suggest any narrative other than the most straightforward: there were two locations in Browne's Addition in the late 1880s and early 1890s where perhaps a dozen Chinese men in total were buried for a few years. Their bones were exhumed and returned to China, just like thousands of other overseas Chinese who died in the American West at the time. The land where they had briefly rested was turned over to other uses once it was no longer needed for that purpose. There were no gravestones being bulldozed, no sacred ground being defiled, and certainly no bodies to hide. And on top of all that, neither site was where Rosauer's stands today.

The Chinese men who were buried in Browne's Addition, however temporarily, were actual human beings. They were probably quite young and they died far from their homes while following their dreams of a better life. They wanted to have their bones returned to their native soil, and all evidence suggests that their wishes were fulfilled. Somewhere in China, there may still be families performing rituals and remembrances for them. They were Spokane pioneers in their own right, and they deserve to be remembered as more than props for a ghost story.