If one had stood between Otero, Sellar & Co. and Browne & Manzanares and looked west up Center St. this is the view what one would had seen. At the head of this street was two-story wood framed Lockhart & Co., which sold hardware and furniture.
With a population of 8,000 people by 1886, Las Vegas was a cosmopolitan town. Along with the Mexican-Americans, Americans and Europeans, especially of German Jewish descent, there were many Native-Americans, typically women domestics, African-Americans, and Chinese-Americans.
Most Chinese-Americans, in Las Vegas, were involved in the laundry business in Las Vegas, a vocation they as a group were conceded. The Chinese-Americans were very independent and kept to themselves, often using the many alleyways in town, and wore traditional clothing, wooden shoes and braided hair with caps. Many were given inducements to leave Las Vegas, as the town politicians became alarmed of their growing population, and most ended up moving to San Francisco.
Many of the wood frame buildings that had survived the numerous conflagrations of the 1880's were removed as brick structures dominated New Town, especially after the establishment of Brown and Hill's brickyard in 1898.
