San Francisco Chinatown

by Philip P Choy

  St. Mary’s Chinese Mission.

  In 1894, the Paulist Fathers took over the old St. Mary’s Church on Dupont and California Streets. A Chinese mission was started in the basement of the church in 1903 under the leadership of Father Henry I. Stark. The Mission gained its own home when an Irish Catholic layman, Mr. Gleason, donated a house on Clay Street above Stockton. But it lasted only a few years before being destroyed by the ’06 quake. Thereafter the Mission moved from place to place until Mrs. Bertha Welch financed a building for a permanent Catholic Chinese School and Social Center on the northwest corner of Clay and Stockton Streets. Mrs. Welch was a laywoman who had worked with Mother St. Ida, who started a kindergarten and English classes for Chinese mothers at Old St. Mary’s Church. Both Mother St. Ida and another assistant, Mother St. Rosa, were China-born Eurasian nuns. Father Charles E. Bradley, who was director at the time (1910-1926), did not speak Chinese but he nevertheless listened to confessions. The problem was resolved when in 1920 a native Chinese Catechist, Mr. Anthony Chan, was brought from Canton. The word of God could now be heard in Chinese. To make up for his deficiency, Father Bradley went to Hong Kong to study Cantonese.

  For some seven decades, the Mission provided education, health, employment, housing, and recreation to the community. Through its recreation programs, the Mission in the 1940s produced such local stars as Helen Wong in tennis, and 5’5” tall Willie “Woo Woo” Wong, who played on the University of San Francisco basketball team. The Chinese playground on Sacramento Street is named in Willie Wong’s honor. As early as 1930, the Mission had its first young men’s drum corps and in 1940, an all-girls St. Mary’s drum corps made its debut. For seven decades, the girls’ drum corps competed in their shimmering silk Chinese uniforms to the cadence of the “Bells of St. Mary’s” and brought home trophy after trophy. Alas, in our changing social environment, the original thirty members had decreased to fifteen by the time Senator Feinstein sent them to represent San Francisco by performing at the 2010 World’s Fair in its sister city, Shanghai.

  The Chinese YWCA

  (The Chinese Historical Society of America) 965 Clay Street

  YWCA Residence Club

  940 Powell Street

  The history of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and the YWCA Residence Club doesn’t simply concern architecture but rather reveals the social realities of the time. The YWCA was a nationwide progressive women’s movement— ahead of its time in the promotion of women’s welfare through Christian fellowship—and was conscious that the issue of racial segregation needed to be resolved if the Association were to represent a true cross-section of all women.

  Julia Morgan designed the two “Y” facilities concurrently in the early 1930s. The fire marshal had condemned the prior Women’s Residence Club as unsafe; meanwhile the Chinese Women’s “Y” at 897 Sacramento Street had outgrown its space and needed a new home. Although it was considered too close to Chinatown, the proposed site on Powell and Clay Streets ultimately was selected. When the Chinese “Y” Committee of Management requested the planning include quarters for Chinese women in the Residence Club, meetings of the Residence Committee were held to consider whether Chinese women should be housed with American women. In one of many proposed solutions, Julia Morgan offered to design separate entrances, one for Chinese and one for American women. The Residential Committee finally resolved “not to have any connection” between the two housing facilities. Even within these Christian organizations, the deeply rooted belief in the superiority of whites over people of color failed to be transcended.

  Julia Morgan (1872-1957) belongs to that pioneering first generation of women architects, working at the time when men still clung to the notion that women should stay at home and have babies. It was her association with such women as Phoebe Hearst and her college roommate Grace Fisher Richards (who became the Executive Director of the Oakland YWCA) that led to Morgan’s being chosen as architect for the YWCAs in the Western United States, and subsequently as the designer of the Residence Club and the Chinese YWCA Center. Morgan became an inspiration for women of her generation, a role model who transcended the domestic role and raised consciousness of women’s equality. She stood tall among such architectural giants as Bernard Maybeck, Arthur J. Brown, and John Galen Howard.

  Because of the intense research needed to design the Chinese YWCA on Clay Street, Morgan came to appreciate Chinese architecture and avoided the stereotypical approaches of earlier trendsetting architects of Chinatown after the 1906 Earthquake. She didn’t adopt the multi-tier pressed, tin pagodas and imitation curled eaves. In reference to the design fees for the Chinese YWCA and Japanese YWCA, Morgan during a committee meeting said: “You can’t afford to pay for it; it has required so much research, I would like to give it as a tribute to the contributions of those two countries to architecture.” The exterior treatment of the Residence Club and the Chinese YWCA reflected Morgan’s genius at blending the architectural characteristics of two divergent cultures.

  The former Chinese YWCA, now the Chinese Historical Society of America.

  Mrs. P. D. Browne founded the YWCAs in San Francisco and Oakland, as well as Montreal, Canada. Her activities in the Chinese community began in 1894, when she founded the Presbyterian Mission Home for girls (a.k.a. Cameron House), and in 1916 she helped organize the Chinese YWCA. This was done in cooperation with other missionary workers in Chinatown, such as Donaldina Cameron. Aiding the mission were members of the Chinese Advisory Committee, including Mrs. Ng Poon Chew, wife of the Chinese Presbyterian Church minister who founded the Chung Sai Yat Bo, Mrs. Theodore Chow from the Methodist Episcopal Chinese Church, and Mrs. H. Y. (Charlotte) Chang. A person who embodied the spirit of the YWCA was Emily Lee Fong. She spearheaded the fund drive for the new building in 1932. Her commitment to the welfare of Chinese women and to the community spanned two world wars.

  The YWCA Residence Club.

  Thirty years later, in 1952, integration was finally achieved when the Central Committee of Management declared, “the way to learn to live together is to live together” and during the institution’s 75th anniversary in 1953, the Executive Director, Mary Buchtel, reported the end of segregated housing. The doors of the Residence Club were opened to Chinese and to African Americans. In 1980 the Residence Club was converted to housing for seniors, and in 1996 the Chinese YWCA was sold to the Chinese Historical Society of America.

  The Chinese Historical Society of America (CHSA) was founded in 1962 at a time when the society-at-large had yet to acknowledge the Chinese of America as an integral part of America history. One of the goals set forth in its constitution was: “To promote the contribution that the Chinese living in this country have made to their adopted land, the United States of America.” The museum features stories never told in the annals of the Nation. Visitors to the museum are generally impressed and amazed at the information they were never told by their history books.

  At first, meetings were held in different homes until 1966, when the Shoong Foundation donated a small building at 17 Adler (now Kerouac Place) for a museum. The building was sold and CHSA moved into the basement at 650 Commerical Street. The physical environment was poor and CHSA sought a new location. Joe Ling, owner of the Gum Sahn Restaurant on 644 Broadway, graciously offered CHSA a place on the fourth floor of the building rent-free. Meanwhile, however, the Chinese YWCA was up for sale. Supervisor Tom Hsieh came to the rescue and under the administration of Mayor Willie Brown, the City funded the purchase in 1996.

  After renovation was completed in 2001, CHSA finally had a permanent home.

  Donaldina Cameron House

  920 Sacramento Street (S.F. Landmark #44)

  Cameron House began in 1874 as a refuge for Chinese girls. In the Gold Rush era, men and women of all professions and occupations—doctors, lawyers, merchants, tradesmen, carpenters, and cooks—coexisted with gamblers, thieves, and harlots. A large proportion of the very few females were “of loose character.” In the Chi
nese quarters, the women were fewer still.

  Writers on the history of San Francisco never failed to exaggerate the evils and sins of Chinatown, focusing on how Chinese women were imported, owned, and bartered in the notorious prostitution traffic. The 1885 Municipal Report documented 66 Chinese houses of prostitution, and 32 white ones, within Chinatown.

  In 1874 a group of Presbyterian women, Mrs. P.D. Brown, Miss Eleanor Olney, Miss Margaret Culbertson, and Mrs. Ira C. Condit organized to rescue Chinese girls caught in prostitution. A home on Joice Alley rented to house the girls quickly grew overcrowded. In 1877, the building on 933 Sacramento Street was purchased and organized as the Women’s Occidental Board of Foreign Missions, with Margaret Culbertson as director. In 1893, a new building known as Culbertson Hall was erected on 920 Sacramento Street.

  The brick building was capped by a gabled roof with a domed turret at the southeast corner. Heavy windowsills and lintels accented the brick surfaces. Romanesque revival details accented the main floor windows. After the ’06 earthquake, an unpretentious three-story red clinker brick building replaced the Romanesque structure. The cornerstone for the new building was laid in August 1907, and in March 1908, the mission resumed its most needed activities, rescuing girls from prostitution and providing a home for women in distress.

  Culbertson Hall.

  In 1895, twenty-five-year-old Donaldina Cameron arrived to assist Miss Culbertson. Donaldina intended to stay for a year but that year grew into four decades of charitable work, with the help of the Chinatown police squad. During the years when Sgt. John Manion was in charge, from 1921 until his retirement in 1949, the prostitution traffic diminished. In 1934, Donadina retired and in 1942, the building was dedicated in her honor as Donaldina Cameron House.

  By the 1930s, the need for a home for rescued women was no longer as acute, but still necessary. To the disappointment of the women still working and living there, the premise was leased to Hip Wo, a Chinese-language school sponsored by a union of the three Chinese churches: Congregational, Presbyterian, and Methodist. The education of children to maintain their Chinese culture under a Christian environment was deemed a higher priority. But the work started by Margaret Culbertson and Donaldina Cameron was continued at 144 Wetmore Street by Lorna Logan, Tien Wu, May Wong, and others who had worked closely alongside Miss Cameron.

  Donaldina Cameron House.

  In 1946, the 920 Sacramento Street building was returned to the Board of National Missions for the purpose of starting programs conceived as vitally needed for the youths of Chinatown. The staff that had been carrying on the social work program at 144 Wetmore moved back in. Cameron House continues to address the needs of a society in constant change. Services are provided for youths, from both within and outside the community. Counseling is offered for cancer patients and adults with domestic problems, and services for immigrants with difficulty acclimating are also provided. Since 1946, three generations have benefited from the programs for youths, a testament to the invaluable service of Cameron House.

  Chinese Central High School (a.k.a. Victory Hall)

  827 Stockton Street

  The Chinese Central High School (Chung Wah) originally began in 1887 as the Dai Ching Shu Yuen (Great Ching School), a primary school sponsored by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA). The operation of the school was disrupted by the 1906 quake but was able to resume afterward, when the Ching Government sent educational commissioner Liang Qinggui to North America to indoctrinate Chinese youths in Chinese culture. Liang subsequently established schools in major Chinese communities.

  In San Francisco, the Dai Ching school resumed operating in the new CCBA building, built with earthquake relief funds from the Ching Government, on 834 Stockton Street.

  On December 15, 1927, the Dai Ching School moved into the building purchased by CCBC at 827 Stockton Street, and the name was changed to Chung Wah (Chinese Central High). Following World War II, the school was remodeled and renamed Victory Hall. However, the Chung Wah alumni lobbied to restore name back to the Chung Wah School. The Chinese characters Chung Wah School were then placed on the face of the building but, because of linguistic habit, the term “Victory Hall” remains in usage.

  Central High School.

  Chinese Consolidation Benevolent Association (a.k.a. Chinese Six Companies)

  834 Stockton Street

  Since the arrival of the Chinese in San Francisco in the early 1850s, immigrants from Guangdong Province sharing geographic origins and speaking the same dialect organized themselves into district associations known as hui kuan. The first four hui kuan were: Sam Yup in 1851, Sze Yup in 1851, Young Wo in 1852, and Sun On in 1852. In 1853, a group separated from the Sze Yup and formed the Ning Yung Association. A further split occurred in the 1860s, when the Sze Yup was divided into two groups, the Hop Wo and the Kong Chow.

  The hui kuan functioned as a cultural shock absorber for newly arrived immigrants, providing necessities such as medical care, food, and temporary lodging. Unfortunately, the society at large saw the associations as importers of coolie labor and slave girls and as controllers of gambling and opium traffic. Because the Chinese immigrants faced hostilities from anti-Chinese forces and had no Consular representative, the hui kuan found it necessary to band together as the Chinese Six Companies to collectively fight against both legal and extralegal discrimination. As such they wrote letters of protests against anti-Chinese mass meetings and riots to civic and state officials, including a memorandum in 1897 “To His Excellency U.S. Grant,” rebutting anti-Chinese charges.

  It wasn’t until September 26, 1878, that the first Chinese Legation was established in Washington, D.C., with the appointment of Chan Lan Pin and Yung Wing as envoys, followed by the appointment of Chen Shu Tung as Consul General in San Francisco on November 8, 1878. Attorney Frederick A. Bee in San Francisco was then appointed as consul to the Chinese Empire. It then became the practice to bring members of China’s gentry-scholar class with imperial degrees to San Francisco to be directors of the hui kuan. These scholars were also assigned to assist in consular duties. The Chinese Consul, on the other hand, was an ex-officio member of the Chinese Six Companies. Their headquarters were originally on 917 Clay Street, before they moved into the Pioche Mansion at 806 Stockton Street in 1887.

  Chinese Consolidation Benevolent Association (a.k.a. Chinese Six Companies).

  On December 10, 1882, with the recommendation of the Chinese Consul General in San Francisco, the Six Companies were consolidated as one organization. Branches were established throughout North America in cities with major Chinese populations, with active participation of titled Chinese officials. The organization was not legally incorporated as the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, USA (CCBA-USA) until 1901. Acknowledged as the “voice” of the Chinese American population, CCBA-USA continued to exercise a strong influence on the affairs of all the Chinese communities in the United States until the 1950s.

  Whenever a nonprofit organization such as the YMCA or the YWCA went fundraising in the community, it would seek approval from the CCBA; thereafter members of the CCBA would accompany the organization’s members, going from store to store in Chinatown to solicit donations from merchants.

  In recent years, the sphere of influence of the CCBA within Chinatown has diminished. Before 1949, emigrants to Chinatown were predominately Cantonese from Guangdong. Since 1965, liberal immigration laws have brought a diverse Chinese population from all over Southeast China, as well as from Taiwan, who are no longer restricted to settling in Chinatown.

  Shortly after the earthquake, the CCBA was rebuilt at 738 Commercial Street. However, because of the squalid Commercial Street environment, the headquarters were relocated to the present Stockton Street location. The original building did not have a pronounced Chinese architectural presence. However, in the remodeling of the building in 1950s, a strong ethnic statement was made with a typical classic Chinese entrance gate guarded by a pair of “Foo Dogs.”

/>   On top of the building the flag of the Kuomintang, declaring allegiance to the Taiwan government (Republic of China), flies alongside the Stars and Stripes.

  Kong Chow Benevolent Association

  865 Stockton Street

  This is a contemporary building using imported Chinese tile to convey its ethnicity. The Kong Chow Benevolent Association is one of the district associations that together form the Chinese Six Companies. The Kong Chow Temple is on the building’s top floor, having relocated in 1977 from 520 Pine Street. The Kong Chow and the Tien Hou on Waverly Place are the two oldest Chinese temples in San Francisco, dating back to the days of the Gold Rush.

  In 1853, G. Ah Thai (a.k.a. G. Athei, Yee Dy, Ah Tye) held title to the Pine Street building where the Sze Yup Co. was located. In the 1860s, the Sze Yup Company split into two organizations, the Kong Chow and Ning Yung Company. The Ning Yung moved to 517 Broadway. The Kong Chow Company retained the Pine Street site for over one hundred years, until it was sold in 1969.

  Kong Chow Benevolent Association.

  Kong Chow Benevolent Association before the ’06 Earthquake on Pine Street

  Kong Chow Benevolent Association on Pine Street after the ’06 Earthquake