[3] By January 1870, white residents had begun complaining to the San Jose City Council about the concentration of Chinese people in the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, in March 1870, a wealthy Chinese businessman from San Francisco secured a ten-year lease of the original Market Street Chinatown's land.
[9] In the 1980s, the Redevelopment Agency of San Jose funded an archaeological excavation as part of the urban renewal project.
One of these sites was located on land leased from L. M. Hoeffler near the San Jose Woolen Manufacturing Company at Taylor and First streets.
Two prominent figures in the Chinese community, Ng Fook and Chin Shin, raised the funds necessary to build the settlement, including the expensive sewer hookups demanded by the city.
It peaked at a size of 15 blocks,[7] which included the Garden City Cannery and, unusually, a Chinese theater and two joss houses in close proximity.
[7][9] In 1999, the California Department of Transportation partnered with the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project to perform an archaeological excavation of the site as part of the completion of Guadalupe Freeway.
[9] Days after the burning of the Market Street Chinatown in 1887, John Heinlen began planning a new home for the city's Chinese residents on a 5-acre (2.0 ha) pasture he owned near the affluent Hensley neighborhood.
He persisted despite the city denying building permits and white residents threatening to ostracize him and making threats on his life.
The city razed the entire neighborhood, except for the Ng Shing Gung building, to make way for a municipal corporation yard.