San Nicolas, Manila

The town of San Nicolas was originally named Baybay, meaning "shore" in Tagalog.^[3][4]

According to Piet Van der Loon (1966), a Sangley Chinese community had already settled in Baybay near Tondo on the banks of the Pasig river, before the Spanish conquest of Manila in the Battle of Manila (1570), and way before the market at Parián (modern-day Arroceros Urban Forest Park) attracted large numbers of traders and craftsmen, especially immigrants and merchants from Southern Fujian,^[5] so before Parián and Binondo became the local Chinatown of the area, Sangley Chinese settlers and merchants were already living in Baybay in between Tondo and old Manila (modern-day Intramuros) on the south bank of the Pasig river.

During Spanish rule, Baybay was renamed to San Nicolas, after the patron saint of sailors, boatmen, and mariners.^[6] San Nicolas is now the western part of Manila Chinatown, the first Chinatown in the Philippines, and perhaps the world;^[7] the eastern part is Binondo, which was founded in 1594 by Governor-General Luis Pérez Dasmariñas.^[7] The Dominican order came to western part of Chinatown in 1596^[7] and then founded San Nicolas in 1598.^[3] This was the first mission by the Dominicans outside Intramuros.^[3]

In 1901, during the American Occupation of the Philippines, San Nicolas became a district of the newly chartered city of Manila as its borders were extended outside the walled city presently known as Intramuros.^[8] Daniel Burnham, an American architect and urban planner, was commissioned to build a Plan of Manila.^[9] The result of the plan was the making of places and parishes that included San Nicolas.^[10] In modern times, San Nicolas is one of the administrative districts of Manila and part of the third legislative district of Manila.^[11] It became an extension of the Filipino-Chinese community in Binondo.^[12]

Barangays 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, and 276 are part of Zone 25; and Barangays 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, and 286 are part of Zone 26.

• Barrio de San Nicolas—Calle de Ylang-Ylang, watercolor by José Honorato Lozano, n.d.

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  Ancestral house
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  Ancestral house
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  Ancestral house
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  Ancestral house
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  Arch of Solidarity
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  Fire Station
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  Jose Abad Santos High School
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  Justice Jose Abad Santos General Hospital

• Teodora Alonso Realonda
• Antonio Luna
• Yul Servo

• San Nicolas Fire Station, Manila

• Van der Loon, Piet (1966). "The Manila Incunabula and Early Hokkien Studies, Part 1" (PDF). Asia Major. New Series. 12: 1–43.