Chee Kung Tong Building National Historic Site of Canada

Barkerville, British Columbia
General rear view of the Chee Kung Tong Building, showing the east lean-to erected ca. 1883 and served primarily as a kitchen, 2006. © Agence Parcs Canada / Parks Canada Agency, N. Shields, 2006.
Rear view
© Agence Parcs Canada / Parks Canada Agency, N. Shields, 2006.
General view of the Chee Kung Tong Building, showing the north lean-to erected ca. 1905 to expand the Chee Kung Tong building’s living quarters and social space, 2006. © Agence Parcs Canada / Parks Canada Agency, N. Shields, 2006.General rear view of the Chee Kung Tong Building, showing the east lean-to erected ca. 1883 and served primarily as a kitchen, 2006. © Agence Parcs Canada / Parks Canada Agency, N. Shields, 2006.Corner view of the Chee Kung Tong Building, 2006. © Agence Parcs Canada / Parks Canada Agency, N. Shields, 2006.
Address : Box 19, Barkerville, British Columbia

Recognition Statute: Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date: 2008-04-11
Dates:
  • 1874 to 1877 (Construction)
  • 1883 to 1885 (Significant)
  • 1908 to 1908 (Significant)
  • 1885 to 1932 (Significant)

Event, Person, Organization:
  • Chinese Freemasons  (Organization)
Other Name(s):
  • Chee Kung Tong Building  (Designation Name)
  • Chinese Freemasons Hall  (Other Name)
  • Chi'h Kung T'ang  (Other Name)
  • Zhigongtang  (Other Name)
Research Report Number: 2007-019, 2009-031

Plaque(s)


Approved Inscription:  Barkerville, British Columbia

This rare example of a 19th-century Chinese benevolent society hall conformed to a Chee Kung Tong tradition that placed services to members on the ground floor and formal functions above. With its hostel, kitchen, and meeting and ceremonial spaces, this hall offered members a refuge where they could find support, work, and shelter. The benevolent services, ceremonies and celebrations, and membership rules of the Chee Kung Tong fostered a sense of belonging in many immigrant Chinese and helped promote interpersonal and business relationships in early Canadian Chinatowns.

Description of Historic Place

Located in British Columbia’s Barkerville Historic Town Provincial Historic Site, the Chee Kung Tong Building National Historic Site of Canada is nestled in the Cariboo District mountains at an elevation of 1,280.2 metres (4,200 feet). Consisting of a two-storey rectangular structure covered with board and batten, and flanked on the east and north by two log lean-tos, the Chee Kung Tong building is situated on the east side of the principal road, in the centre of Barkerville Chinatown. The designation refers to the footprint of the main building and the two lean-tos.

Heritage Value

The Chee Kung Tong Building was designated a national historic site in 2007 because: it is a rare surviving example of Chee Kung Tong architecture in Canada, with the interior divided into a hostel, kitchen and socializing space on the ground floor and a society hall and altar room on the second floor, all of which illustrate 19th-century Chee Kung Tong architectural conventions;
-it exemplifies the community building and sense of belonging produced among immigrant Chinese labourers and merchants in new settlements throughout Canada by the provision of benevolent services and traditional Chinese and Hong-men society ceremonies and celebrations, as well as the provision of a vehicle for political diaspora to maintain a connection with China; and,
-it served as a venue for dealing with the affairs of the Chinese community in the Cariboo District, exerting control over business and personal relationships between members.

Among the oldest surviving structures in the Barkerville Provincial Park, the main structure of the Chee Kung Tong building was constructed between 1874-1877, and was originally used by the members of the Chee Kung Tong organization for ceremonial, residential and social purposes. The division of the interior into a hostel, kitchen and socializing space on the ground floor, and a society hall and altar room on the second floor makes this building an excellent and well-preserved example of 19th-century architecture of the Chee Kung Tong in Canada, and a representative of the organization’s structures during the wooden boomtown period of Chinatown architecture in British Columbia. As a benevolent association, the Chee Kung Tong in Barkerville provided a hostel for recent arrivals and winterers, provided venues for day-to-day social activities, and coordinated traditional Chinese and Hong-men celebrations that galvanized the sense of community. The Chee Kung Tong in Barkerville was active in the social, political, economic and recreational aspects of its members’ lives, and the society exerted its political control over the Hong-men through meetings which took place in the society hall on the second storey of the Chee Kong Tong building.

Sources: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, July 2007; Submission Report 2007-19, Chee Kung Tong Building, Barkerville, British Columbia.

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements contributing to the heritage value of this site include: the first-storey hostel, kitchen facilities and space for socializing; the second-storey space for a society hall and alter room; its well-preserved wooden components, illustrative of boomtown construction technique; the horizontal and vertical signboards above the second-storey balcony door, that distinguish this building as a Chinese construction; the two log lean-tos that flank the east and north side of the main structure its setting as part of Barkerville historic town.