Chinatown/South Cove

The Chinatown/South Cove Tour starts at the Visitor Center on Boston Common, winds through Chinatown, and ends at Park Square. It presents a wide range of women’s activities and organizations working for social change and economic justice. The focus is on immigrant groups, most recently Chinese. The tour also includes a women’s settlement house serving an earlier immigrant population, and the international programs of a Catholic sisterhood. The South Cove area, originally the South Cove of Boston Harbor, was filled in between 1833-39. Beach Street takes its name from its former location along the edge of the harbor. Although the Chinese community began arriving in the mid-nineteenth century, large numbers of women were not allowed until the liberalization of immigration laws in the mid-twentieth century. The people of the Chinese community give the area its special spirit, along with its architecture, murals, restaurants, groceries, and shops.