Mott Street (Chinese: 勿街; Jyutping: Mat6 gaai1) is a narrow but busy thoroughfare that runs in a north–south direction in the New York City borough of Manhattan.

In the years to follow, Chinese immigrants would carve out an enclave around the intersection of Mott, Doyer, and Pell Streets.

As a result, Chinatown began expanding quickly, and Standard Cantonese, which is spoken in Guangzhou, China and in Hong Kong, became the dominant language of the neighborhood.

[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] He was "probably one of those Chinese mentioned in gossip of the sixties [1860s] as peddling 'awful' cigars at three cents apiece from little stands along the City Hall park fence – offering a paper spill and a tiny oil lamp as a lighter", according to author Alvin Harlow in Old Bowery Days: The Chronicles of a Famous Street (1931).

[22] It has been speculated that it may have been Ah Ken who kept a small boarding house on lower Mott Street and rented out bunks to the first Chinese immigrants to arrive in Chinatown.

By the 1970s, following a bloody battle over territory, the Ghost Shadows controlled Mott Street with the approval and affiliation of the On Leong Tong, the wealthiest and most influential gang organization in Chinatown.

The gangs were the guards of the On Leoong gambling houses operating in the poor conditions of lofts and basements along Mott Street.

The gangs also acted as runners in the Chinatown Connection heroin trade between the Canada–US border and New York, and spread the drug throughout the state.

Today, this stretch of Mott Street is lined with souvenir shops, tea houses, and restaurants catering largely to tourists.

In 2003, the 32 Mott Street General Store closed due to the effects of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Chinatown economy.

[32] A new branch of New York Mart opened up in August 2011 on Mott Street, although in the late 2010s, it was renamed to iFresh Supermarket.

[33][34] Just a block away from New York Mart is a Hong Kong Supermarket located on the corner of Elizabeth and Hester Streets.

The long-established Cantonese community stretches onto Pell, Doyer, Bayard, Elizabeth, Mulberry, and Canal Streets and onto Bowery.

The high walls surrounding the church along Mott Street attest to the tension between Protestants and Catholics in New York during the 19th century.

In the early history of this organization, it performed a quasi-governmental role for the Chinatown community and provided financial support and training to Chinese residents who aspired to become business owners.

Today the organization provides services ranging from social services, training in personal and commercial conflict resolution and mediation, preserving Chinese culture, helping Chinese Americans integrate with mainstream groups, charity events, sponsorships for educational related activities, and advocacy for small businesses.

The outside design of the restaurant's entrance was a colossal Chinese-style awning, crowned with a large wooden carved Chinese dragon.

The restaurant was located on a balcony with carved teakwood panels that appeared to leap out from the rest of the building, with the purpose of gaining the attention of people strolling through the streets below.

The restaurant was known for its delicious Chinese-style dishes and delicacies as well as for its authentic Chinese style wall decor, inlaid pearl mahogany tables, teakwood chairs, ornate carved wooden panels, windscreens, lanterns, and chandeliers.

The East Hall upper dining room had a baby grand piano for entertainment, and by 1910, it was redesigned to accommodate long banquet tables.

The West Hall upper dining room had no walls or screens to divide the space and each table was set up with only four seats, to accommodate smaller groups.

There was also a special upper floor room for a bride's traditional change into different red dresses for various stages of the wedding reception.

The second floor dining area was for smaller groups of customers or after-hours slummers, American tourists in search for exotic adventures.

The restaurant was very conveniently located near an elevated train at Chatham Square and a subway station at Worth Street.

This was the gathering place for the earliest Chinese immigrants to socialize and maintain their kin roots with family and friends.

Due to discrimination within the immigration laws at the time, Chinese men were not allowed to bring their families to America.

The apothecary shelves that displayed traditional styles of Chinese rice bowls, tea sets, and jade dragons still remained as well.