PhilaPlace

Dan Khang Nha Trang, Inc. Chinese Apothecary

Dan Khang Nha Trang Apothecary entrance
. Image provided by Historical Society of Pennsylvania

820 South 9th Street

This Vietnamese-owned herbal medicine shop is situated next to a building that used to house one of Frank Giunta's butcher shops. The Giuntas are one of the earliest Ninth Street merchant families, and owned seven butcher shops all around the neighborhood before selling the last business, a housewares store at Tenth and Christian, in the late 1990s. The juxtaposition of these two businesses — a Chinese apothecary and a butcher shop-cum-café — reflects the dual (and sometimes conflicting) trends that have come to define this neighborhood — immigration and rising property values.