1st Store: c.1888-1890 

821 Sixth Street, btwn E & F
Based on early store ads and partnership records, it appears that the original Quon Mane store was a partnership with C. F. Louie, but they soon parted ways. Information about Louie is not readily available, but it seems he may have been a disreputable character.

Around 1890, there may also have been an additional store location in between Stores #1 and #2, but if so, it was short-lived.

From the beginning, the store sold Chinese and Japanese merchandise. In the early years, the only ads in the local paper were small pre-4th of July notices highlighting fireworks. Quon/Quan Mane was not the only Chinese store selling them.

2nd Store: c.1890-1896

631 Fifth Street, near Market (Yuma Building)
1890s store ads highlighted pongee and other silks,  porcelains, screens and curios, as well as fireworks...and even live canaries!

3rd Store: 1896-1916

831 Fifth Street, btwn E & F (next to the Bank of Commerce in the Louis Building)
Picture
Quon Leon (personal collection); Quon Mane (arrival case file 12756/005-17, RG85 NARA San Bruno); Louis Building (courtesy San Diego History Center)
This long-lived location is when Quon Mane really became something of a San Diego institution. Quon Leon's photo is shown along with Quon Mane's because it's possible he played an equal or near equal role in the store's development.
Picture
(courtesy San Diego History Center)
Picture
The wording on the fans says "Novelties" and "Japanese Curios" (ibid)
The photo showing Quon Mane's wife (née "Gun" 簡氏) suggests that the store offered whatever would sell, and that in California of the time, basic homewares like dishes, fabric, baskets, lamps, etc. were probably still extremely welcome.

4th Store: 1916-1922

1051 Fifth Street, btwn C& D (next to Richelieu Hotel Building)
Following the death of youngest brother Quon Leon in 1914 or 1915, Quon Mane was basically running the store solo. #3 Brother Quon Tong had also remained in the US, but with limited English did not play a big role. One relative said that his main role was to cook meals for everyone.

From 1918, after thirty years in business, ads began to highlight the store's longevity and good reputation. In general, the ads grew bigger and more sophisticated. Quon Mane had the confidence to say that Chinese or Oriental things could make the American home beautiful (or maybe his US-educated nephews or a professional copywriter had the savvy to say such things). Candied ginger also became a regular item advertised over the decades.

5th Store: 1922-1935

1159 Fifth Street, btwn B & C (north of Marston's and next to the Kingston Hotel)
In 1922, the store moved into the attractive premises seen below and in the main photo on this page. In a feature interview in The San Diego Union, Quon Mane accurately declared that this would be his last move.
Following 3 photos courtesy of San Diego History Center
Picture
(courtesy San Diego History Center)
Picture
A golden pagoda — the store logo — sits in the window, and other items such as scrolls, small stands, vases and textiles can all be seen.

6th Store: 1935-1960

1179 Fifth Street, "5th & B" (across from the Orpheum), Tel: Franklin 2951
After Quon Mane's death in 1929, a first branch store was opened in La Jolla in 1930 (see below). In 1935 nephew Albert, in the role of Manager, masterminded yet another store move to a corner site with custom facade by the architect of Grauman's Chinese Theater.
​Ads from the 1930s introduced a "chop suey" font and a "pig-tailed celestial"--a phrase used in 1893 to describe Quon Mane. Was Albert merely playing to his market, or did he believe these motifs captured something truly Chinese?
There were definitely some management struggles after Quon Mane's death, whether because of insufficient succession planning, or simply because it was apparent that there were going to be too many chefs and not enough broth for the larger second generation.

From a 1933 list, we know the store had at some point after Quon Mane's death expanded to fourteen partners from the ten or eleven partners of the previous decades. Beside the five sons of Quon Mane and Quon Leon (Ben, King, Frank, Albert and Nathan), other partners included Quon Mane's three daughters; four 1st or 2nd cousins with passive stakes, who for the most part were silent partners of longstanding having apprenticed with Quon Mane many years before; and Brother #3's wife (presumed to be widowed) and second son (who had served jail time).

Eventually ownership of the stores would pass solely to Quon Mane's sons Ben and King. Ben apparently gained the main San Diego store and other branches--with the exception of La Jolla, which became King's domain.

But at the time their father died, Ben and King were only aged about 20 and 17, and apparently too young to take over. So Frank and Albert were needed for leadership (their younger brother Nathan was between Ben and King's ages).

In the 1933 partners list, Frank and Albert are noted as Manager and Assistant manager, respectively. According to Albert, Quon Mane had made a bad loan, the store was actually not in such good financial shape, and he only continued to play a role until 1937 out of a sense of duty.

Meanwhile some members of the family believe to this day that Albert was hardly so selfless in working simultaneously for both Quon Mane and for his own account. His wholesale handicrafts business would soon dwarf everyone else's combined retail efforts. If not already in evidence, he and Frank would also have their differences. For sure, Albert would become a "tall tree that catches the wind".

Scouring city directories for clues about job roles and store affiliations only makes the picture murkier. Ben and Frank certainly had their own side hustles. From at least 1932 to 1936, it appears that Ben and Frank ran an oriental art goods business, separate from Quon Mane, at 228 Broadway in San Diego.

And then around 1936, things seemed to reach a head. The new, jazzier Quon Mane store at 5th & B was up and running, ostensibly all thanks to Albert. Quon Mane's eldest, the widowed Katherine Quon Lem, moved back to China, allegedly to ensure her two sons learned about their Chinese roots. King, aged 25 and the baby of the five cousins, got married and would soon have his own first child on the way.

By 1937, Albert would definitively split from Quon Mane, moving from San Diego to Los Angeles, which would become the base for Quon-Quon wholesale business. Frank was re-affiliated with Quon Mane, appearing in directories as manager of both the San Diego and La Jolla stores. Meanwhile, Ben appeared to dip his toe into the restaurant business, with a single year listing for premises at 2606 Imperial Avenue.

7th Store: 1960-1969

1154 Fifth Street
Last store in downtown San Diego. (No images known.)
Also in this section: Unexpected Patriarch | Quon Mane Offshoots | Exclusion-Era Paper Chase | Brothers Between Lands | Other Quon Profiles