4″ x 8″ bricks with inscription and 12” x 12” pavers with traditional Chinese characters.
Since 1807, Historic Congressional Cemetery in Southeast Washington, D.C., near the Anacostia River, has served as the final resting place for military leaders, public officials, Native American dignitaries, Civil War soldiers, and people from all walks of life. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2011.
Yet within this historic landscape is a little-known site called Range 99. Nearly 100 Chinese migrants were interred there between 1896 and 1938. Among the first migrants from China to Washington, D.C., their remains were later exhumed according to Chinese tradition and returned to China for reburial, where their families could perform essential ancestral rites.
Today, Range 99 is empty. No Chinese remains or gravestones remain to mark the people who were once buried there. Surrounded by stones and memorials representing more than two centuries of American history, its emptiness is striking—a physical reminder of stories that have too often been absent from the larger American narrative.
In 2015, the 1882 Foundation, Chinese American Citizens Alliance, and Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association installed two benches and a small plaque at Range 99, creating a place for remembrance, reflection, and visitors with connections to these early Chinese migrants. When the cemetery boundary wall behind the benches later collapsed, its repair required the removal of the large shade tree that had made the site welcoming, and the benches were further damaged by weather and exposure.
The 1882 Foundation now plans to restore and expand the memorial with new benches, a brick patio, new trees to restore the natural canopy, and additional interpretive signage. The commemorative plaque will also be reinstalled, creating a renewed place to remember and share this important chapter of the Chinese American experience.
For $250, individuals, family members, friends, or associations can be honored with a 4″ x 8″ engraved brick incorporated into the Chinese American Memorial. Each sponsored brick also includes a corresponding entry in the 1882 Foundation’s digital archive, where photographs, family histories, and other stories can be preserved for future generations. The archive exists today and is being further developed for public access.
The proposed memorial design. (image credit: Jenn Low, PLA)
Names may be engraved in English, traditional Chinese, or simplified Chinese characters. For $1,000, ancestral districts in China can be recognized on 12″ x 12″ pavers engraved in traditional Chinese characters and placed at the center of the memorial.
Proceeds from brick sponsorships help maintain the site and support annual Qingming commemorations, interpretive signage, and the continued development and accessibility of the digital archive. In collaboration with the Chinese American Heroes Project in San Francisco, the archive will help preserve these stories of the Chinese American experience for future generations.
As new bricks are added, the memorial will continue to grow, reflecting the contributions of Chinese Americans across generations. Engraved bricks honor individuals, families, and organizations, while the central pavers recognize ancestral districts in China that helped shape the community’s history and identity.
The benches will offer visitors a place to rest and reflect, recalling the migrants whose journeys brought them to Washington and who were temporarily buried at this site before their remains were returned to China. Crepe myrtle and ginkgo trees will provide beauty and shade, helping create a welcoming place for remembrance within a cemetery that holds so many stories of the American experience.