Sam Chong Laundry:
From our research we discovered some aspects of Sam Chong’s life and Laundry business. He was born in China, possibly in 1837, both of his parent’s where also from China. Sam was literate, he could read and write and was a Pagan like his parents. Records show that he died on June 10th 1937. According to the 1911, 1920 henderson personal directories and the 1929 Street directories, we induced that he owned three laundry locations. The first being at 1110 Blanchard street, then another was located on 729 Fisgard street. Records also list another one of his laundry service at 813a Fort street. From this information we have based our hypothesis that he was one of the more prominent and successful Chinese laundry businesses.
Employees of 1110 Blanchard Location:
We where able to find accounts of several of his employees at the 1110 Blanchard location here are some of the information we discovered from the 1911 Census:
Chan, Jin – Age 21
Gender Male- Birthplace China- Marital Status Single -Canadian Employment Employee- Infirmities Race – Chinese Earnings $600.00- Birthdate January , 1890- Speaks English/French No / No- Read/Write- No / No – First language- Chinese – Immigration year 1910- Relation to head Roomer – Religion, Confucian
Chan, Yuen – Age 25
Gender Male- Birthplace China – Marital Status Single- Nationality Canadian- Employment Employee – Race Chinese- Earnings $600.00-Birthdate October , 1885 -Speaks English/French No / No-Read/Write No / No -First language Chinese-Immigration year 1909-Relation to head- Roomer – Religion Confucian
Evidence:
Photo from BC archives- creation 1944 (Banner on side of truck: The Fraternal Order of Eagles and individual members have purchased $60,000 of War Bonds for Victory. How about you? Men in civil defence uniforms with helmets.)
Here is his signature from an 1891 Census:
Here is his listing in the 1929 street directory 
From the Demolished Building Plans Address List:
