San Francisco Chinatown

by Philip P Choy

  Nam Kue School

  755 Sacramento Street

  The Namhoi Benevolent Association, one of the three associations that make up the Sam Yup Benevolent Association, founded the Nam Kue School. The school first opened on March 10, 1920, in a single room on 647 Jackson Street, with thirty-five students. In 1925, because of increasing enrollment, the Namhoi Benevolent Association purchased the site at 755 Sacramento Street and built the present structure.

  The school was intended for the children from the three districts of Punyu, Shuntak, and Namhoi of Guangdong Province. Chinese not from these districts could enroll at a higher tuition fee. Chinese schools were established with the intention of keeping young Chinese Americans in touch with Chinese culture, history, and language.

  During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1970s, in an attempt to achieve racial equality in education, the San Francisco Board of Education proposed desegregating the public schools by busing children out of their communities into other districts of the city. Parents from the Chinese community were outraged and protested vehemently. When, on July 9, 1971, U.S. District Judge Stanley A. Weigel ordered desegregation by forced busing, Chinese parents, led by the Chinese Six Companies, defied the mandate and opened their own private schools. Four of the local Chinese language schools, including Nam Kue, were used to house classes.

  As with all institutions in Chinatown, the Nam Kue School continued to recognize the Kuomintang (KMT) as the legitimate government of China after its defeat by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). With the normalization relation between the United States and PRC, the Nam Kue School was among the few institutions to switch its allegiance. On March 8, 2005 when the school celebrated its 85th anniversary, the KMT flag that flew proudly over the flagpole for eight decades was replaced with the flag of the People’s Republic of China.

  Nam Kue School.

  Chinese Daily Post

  809 Sacramento Street

  809 Sacramento Street was the former home of the Chinese Nationalist Daily (Kuo Min Yat Bo). In 1953, the name was changed to the Chinese Daily Post.

  In the 1920s, the Kuomintang (KMT) was the major political force in Chinese communities. In San Francisco, the KMT was represented by Young China (1910-1960) and its daily newspaper at 881-888 Clay Street. The conservative elements of the KMT purged its members associated with Communism. The departing left-wing radicals founded the Chinese Nationalist Daily and both parties claimed legitimate representation of the KMT. The friction between the parties was diffused with the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, when the focus turned to opposing Japanese aggression.

  Chinese Daily Post.

  Today, the building is the home of Asian Week. On display is the exhibit “The Rape of Nanking,” documenting atrocities committed by the Japanese during the Sino-Japanese War of 1937.

  Chinese Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA)

  855 Sacramento Street

  Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 1961, the Chinese YMCA traced its official history back to July 11, 1911. However, The Reverend Otis Gibson and The Reverend Ira Condit both wrote of Chinese YMCA activities during the 1870s (Condit 1900, 116) regarding the dispute between the Chinese Christian community and the Chinese Six Companies relating to the purchase of Steamship tickets (Gibson 343). The Six Companies were the “voice” of the Chinese and had quasi-control of all of the Chinese people in America. The Six Companies and the steamship companies reached an agreement whereby any Chinese purchasing tickets to China had to first purchase an exit permit issued by the Six Companies. Members of YMCA refused and in May 1874 sent a memo to the Six Companies releasing themselves from the Companies’ “protection” and declaring their right to buy tickets without interference. The shipping companies acquiesced, provided that the passenger could present an “endorsement of character” from one of the missionaries or the stamp of the Chinese YMCA.

  When the Chinese branch of the YMCA was established on July 11, 1911, the programs were held in various churches of the community. Expanding membership and activities led to the organization leasing 1028 Stockton Street in 1912, and then 830 Stockton Street in 1915. The present building at 855 Sacramento Street, completed on February 23, 1926, was made possible by six men: John R. Mott, The Reverend Chan Lok Shang, Robert Dollar, John McCallum, Lew Hing, and Richard Perkins.

  Chinese Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA).

  At the turn of the 20th century an invisible boundary separated the Chinese community from mainstream America, for outside contact was limited to members of certain occupations like food peddlers, laundrymen, and domestic servants. Although the purpose of the “Y ” was to promote Christianity, programs such as language, education, and healthcare were also provided to promote assimilation. An employment agency led to working opportunities outside the community, albeit usually as domestic servants.

  The appearance of second-generation Chinese in the ’20s and ’30s made recreation a major priority. The 1925 building provided the first gymnasium and the only swimming pool in Chinatown. The Chinese recreation center with a regulation basketball court, on Mason Street, was not built until 1957. YMCA programs played a major role in the Americanization of young adults and teenagers.

  In the design of the 1925 building, the tou-kung, a complicated structural system of timber brackets that supported the roof, was employed by the architect, merely as ornamentation to decorate the entry gate, the entrance to the former boy’s and men’s lobby, and the outriggers under the eave. A major renovation was completed in 2010, with the addition reflecting a more contemporary architectural style while retaining features of the old as an allusion to the past.

  Willie “Woo Woo” Wong Playground

  855 Sacramento Street

  Until January 1927, the streets or empty lots served as playgrounds for Chinatown’s children. On December 4, 1920, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce called on the mayor to build a playground in the community. Though the mayor promised to take the matter into consideration, nothing happened until six years later, when a playground was built on the present site. The playground featured not only Chinatown’s first swing sets and slides but also a tennis court, a volleyball court, and a non-regulation-size basketball court. A small field house was built with a pseudo-Chinese design.

  The first director of the playground was Oliver Chang, descendant of the Chinese pioneer Yee Atai, who founded the Sze Yup District Association in 1851. Instead of being named after a benefactor of children, the playground remained nameless for over 75 years. In 2009, however, it was named “Willie ‘Woo Woo’ Wong Playground” after a 5’5” basketball phenomenon of the community who made the University of San Francisco Don’s basketball team.

  From the time he played in Polytechnic High School during the 1940s to the time coach Pete Newell recruited him to play for the Dons in 1948, “Woo Woo” Wong was acclaimed by sports writers in local newspapers as fantastic, sensational, brilliant—small in stature but large in athletic talent. Traveling with the U.S.F. Dons Varsity in 1949-1950, he was the first Chinese American to play in Madison Square Garden and the first to achieve prominence as a collegiate player.

  Don Lofgran, left, and Joe McNamee, both 6’ 6” tower over 5’ 4” “Woo Woo” Wong.

  His Chinese name was “Woo” and fans would chant “Woo Woo” every time he scored, so Examiner sports writer Bob Brackman nicknamed him “Woo Woo.”

  Chinese Baptist Church

  15 Waverly Place

  Early efforts by the Southern Baptist Mission Board to work among the Chinese in San Francisco met with minimal success. Most of the ministers assigned to work with the Chinese community had previously spent time in China and would only work with the Baptist mission for a short period before returning there.

  The Reverend John Lewis Shuck was the first such minister to appear in Chinatown. In 1835, he made his first missionary trip to Hong Kong and Canton with his bride Henrietta Hall. After eight years and four sons, Henrietta died, and Reve
rend Shuck returned home. He remarried and in 1847 returned to China, this time assigned to Shanghai. Tragically his second wife died there and, upon returning to the U.S. in 1854, Reverend Shuck spent a brief period in San Francisco, in an unsuccessful attempt to establish the Chinese Baptist Church. Shortly thereafter, he was sent to Sacramento, where he established a chapel on the corner of 6th and H Streets.

  It wasn’t until 1870 that the Northern Baptist Mission Board called The Reverend John Francis to restart missionary work among the Chinese in California. Reverend Francis opened a Sunday school using the facilities of the First Baptist Church of San Francisco at 829 Washington Street. Later, Reverend R. H. Graves and Fung Seung Nam came from Canton to replace Reverend Francis. Fung was reputed to be an extremely eloquent and effective street preacher, attracting a crowd of hundreds on Jackson Street every night. Unfortunately, he died in May 1871, only a year after his arrival. As a tribute, every pastor from Chinatown, and many from outside it, attended his funeral service. In 1874, The Reverend E. I. Simmons, also from Canton, came to San Francisco to replace Reverend Francis, but returned to China after only sixteen months. For the next five years, a small group of Chinatown Christians would continue to meet without a pastor. But missionary activities between China and the Baptist Mission in San Francisco continued. In 1879, Dr. Jess B. Hartwell, who had served twenty years in China, started an evening school in a rented room. Reverend Hartwell had three women, Mrs. J. L. Sanford, Mrs. Mowell, and Miss C.J. White, as assistants but they all went to China as missionaries after only a year.

  Chinese Baptist Church.

  Nonetheless, under Reverend Hartwell, a Baptist church was finally built in Chinatown in 1888, at the present site on the corner of Sacramento Street and Waverly Place. The building was Romanesque in treatment, employing a half-round arch over double-arched stained-glass windows to dominate both street facades. The present clinker brick building, built after the ’06 quake, was originally two stories, with a third floor added in 1937. Only the ground floor was given architectural treatment. A large gothic stained-glass window dominates the Sacramento, Waverly, and west elevations. The composite rose window with four pointed-arch lancets is surrounded by a pointed arch that completes the gothic expression. The second floor is without architectural ornament. When the third floor was added, the architect skillfully replicated the second floor, leaving no clue that the building has been altered. The windows and doors on the clinker brick building are accented with smooth contrasting buff brick to further enhance its architectural appeal.

  GRANT AVENUE

  Delivery of live poultry on Grant Avenue between Jackson and Pacific.

  Grant Avenue overlays the oldest street in the City. During the Mexican period of California history, the street was labeled “Calle de la Fundacion” on a map sketched by William Antonia Richardson in 1835. On the first official map of San Francisco (as “Yerba Buena”) made by Jasper O’Farrell in 1847, Calle de la Fundacion was renamed Dupont Street after Capt. Samuel F. Dupont, United States Naval Officer, Commander of the U.S.S. Congress. By the 1870s, the Chinese had moved onto Dupont Street between California and Jackson Streets. Today the Chinese continue to call it “Dupont Gai” (street) even though it was renamed Grant Avenue in 1908.

  As the Chinese expanded northward in the 1870s, they identified some streets with Chinese names based on the activity of the street, a major incident that occurred, or a prominent place of business. On the north side of Jackson Street between Grant and Stockton Streets—today’s Jason Court—was Sullivan Alley, but the Chinese called it “Gum Gook Hong” (“Golden Chrysanthemum”) after the restaurant on that alley. Old Chinatown Lane was “Ma Fong Hong” (“Horse Stable Alley”) because the horses and carriages were quartered there. At one time it was called “Cameron Alley,” after Donaldina Cameron. On the south side is St. Louis Alley, called by local residents “Faw Sill Hong” (“Fire Burning Alley”) after a raging fire that occurred on October 20th, 1878.

  On Jackson Street between Grant and Kearny, Beckett Street was called “Bok Wah Dunn Gai” (“Plain Language John”). According to legend, it was named after a white man called John, an interpreter who spoke Chinese. However, Chief of Police Jesse B. Cook, member of the Chinatown Squad (1880s to 1930s), claimed it was named after the grocery man, who spoke Chinese. On the east side of the street was Wentworth, named “Duct Wall Gai” (“Street of Harmony”) after the store in that alley. The white public nicknamed it “Fish Alley” because of the stench produced by the processing of dried salted fish in that alley.

  These names were used by the Chinese-language Telephone Directory. Other such names are noted throughout the sections of this book.

  After the 1906 Earthquake, Grant Avenue developed into three distinct sections. Southern Grant Avenue catered to the tourists, central Grant became the heart of Chinatown, and northern Grant between Pacific and Broadway attracted Italian housewives from adjacent North Beach with the availability of live fish and poultry and Western-style butchered meat.

  SOUTHERN GRANT AVENUE

  Bush to Sacramento Street

  The aspiration of Look Tin Eli for a “veritable fairy palace filled with the choicest treasures of the Orient” began with the two imposing structures on the southwest and southeast corner of Grant and California Streets. After the ’06 Earthquake, the two blocks between California and Bush Street became the Oriental Bazaar of Chinatown. Every guidebook included a tour of the two blocks where souvenirs for the tourist and antiques for the serious collector could be found. The lanterns strung across the streets in the ’30s were not Chinese, however, but Japanese. The Japanese had become aware not only of the interest in Oriental art but also of the market for tourist trinkets, cheaply made and easily broken. The term “Made in Japan” was synonymous with inferior products, unlike the later reputation for quality of electronics companies such as Sony, Nikon, and Mitsubishi. In 1917, Japanese names such as Daibutsu, K. Yoshizawa Co., Okai Conpany, Nippon Trading, and Madam Butterfly stood out on southern Grant Avenue alongside Chinese firms like Sing Chong, Sing Fat, Canton Bazaar, Wing Sing Lung, and Shanghai Bazaar.

  Chinese cocktail bars and lounges—which had begun to appear on Grant in the mid-1920s—began to prosper during 1940s, as San Francisco became a major port for wartime activities. Thousands of servicemen from all over the United States, either stationed in California or in transit, saw for the first time “real” Chinese who played music like Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, and Benny Goodman, and also listened to Dudley Lee, known as “the Chinese Frank Sinatra,” at Andy Wong’s Skyroom. At the corner of Grant and Bush was Eddie Pond’s Kubla Khan, where Eddie played every Latin American rhythm instrument. Chorus girls dared to expose their legs; Noel Toy, billed as “the Chinese Sally Rand” after the famed fan dancer at the ’39 Treasure Island World’s Fair, danced with provocative grace, waving her two large feathered fans teasingly to hide her nude body. While escorting her at a recent Chinese Historical Society fundraiser, the present author remarked: “I recognize you!” She quipped: “How can you? I have my clothes on!” These Chinese musicians and dancers were the entrepreneurs of the entertainment world, daring to defy old traditional ways by entering show business.

  Sing Chong

  601-615 Grant Avenue

  Sing Fat

  573 Grant Avenue

  In the design of the Sing Chong and Sing Fat buildings, architects Ross & Burgren chose the most obvious representation of Chinese architecture, the pagoda. These two corner buildings lent themselves to the adaptation of multi-tiered eaves to emulate the multi-story pagoda. After the completion of the basic structural and functional elements, the four-story steel frame and commercial brick buildings were topped at the corner with a three-level steel frame pagoda. Whereas the pagoda in China was actually a functional building structure, Ross & Burgren’s designs were mere decorative elements added to the roofline. On both buildings, curved canopies simulating Chinese rooflines and placed strategically over window
openings enhanced the otherwise austere buildings. The trigram logo on Sing Chong and the dragon trademark of Sing Fat were incised prominently onto the buildings to complete the “Oriental” imagery. At the time of their completion, the buildings were illuminated at night by several thousand incandescent lightbulbs.

  Sing Chong.

  Sing Fat.

  Sing Chong, established in 1875, and Sing Fat, established in 1864, were major “Oriental” art stores. Both buildings were designed to accommodate grandiose displays, including large windows on the second floor to display fine porcelain and other works of art. On the ground floors, the innovation of large showroom windows was made possible through the use of steel beams, introduced by the construction of the Eiffel Tower during the 1889 Paris Exposition. The two buildings established the southern end of Grant Avenue (then named Dupont Street) between Sacramento and Bush as the local center for Asian Art. Termed “Oriental bazaars,” Sing Chong and Sing Fat offered trinkets and souvenirs for tourists and antiques for serious collectors.

  Across the street from the two buildings is St. Mary’s Church, built in 1854, a reminder that Chinatown overlays the beginnings of San Francisco. The Sing Fat site itself was where the first Congregational Church was dedicated in 1853.

  Old St. Mary’s Church.

  Grant Avenue

  Sitting on a foundation of granite imported from China is Old St. Mary’s Church, on the south-east corner of Grant Avenue and California Street. The church, founded by Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany, is the only remaining evidence that the Grant Avenue corridor, now Chinatown, was once the domain of mainstream San Francisco. John Sullivan, who came to California in 1844, donated the property on which the cathedral was built. Four generations of parishioners, including his children and grandchildren, faithfully attended the church. The sound from the bell of St. Mary’s and later the chimes from the clock have echoed through the neighborhood since December 9, 1854. The Chinese called Old St. Mary’s “Dai Chung Low,” the big bell building.