Two historic buildings in Lethbridge's Chinatown district were damaged by a fire on Tuesday morning.
Officials say no one was injured.
President of the Lethbridge Historical Society Belinda Crowson says it's a tragic loss of history for the city and the Chinese population. Crowson says Bow On Tong was built in 1920 and helped support Chinese-Albertans in Lethbridge since the early 1900s, operating as a grocery store and lodging house, and later as a traditional Chinese herbal shop.Several groups tried to raise money and apply for grants to restore the building, but those efforts ended after over $106,000 was put into structural repairs.
"The Chinese Free Mason is still there, we have the Lee Wong building on 13 Street North, so there are still some buildings that tell that story - very few were like the Bow On Tong with that apothecary area and with the stories there," Crowson said. "I know we've documented - we have photographs - but there is nothing like the real building to tell the story."
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