Sam Choy Brick Store

The Sam Choy Brick Store, a small 19th-century structure on Main Street, is the only surviving building from Angels Camp's once-substantial Chinese community. Chinese miners were a significant presence throughout the California Gold Rush, often reworking claims abandoned by white miners and extracting gold others had missed. The Brick Store served as a general store and supply depot for the local Chinese population.

The building is a California Historical Landmark and carries interpretive signage explaining the history of the Chinese community in the region — their economic role, the discrimination they faced, and the erasure of most of their physical presence from the historical record. It is a small building but an important reminder of the diverse and often uncomfortable history of the Gold Rush.

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A story
At the height of the Gold Rush, the Chinese community in Angels Camp was large enough to maintain several businesses, temples, and a separate social infrastructure. The Sam Choy Brick Store is the only building that survives from that period — the rest of the Chinese settlement was burned down in a series of racially motivated fires during the late 19th century. The store is now a California Historical Landmark.