The Women's Missionary Society of the Pacific Coast of the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself nationally. In 1939, th ...

was founded on October 29, 1870 by Methodist Rev. Otis T. Gibson, with eleven women he recruited in August 1870, for the purpose of working among the slave girls in

Chinatown, San Francisco, California The Chinatown (), centered on Grant Avenue and Stockton Street in San Francisco, California, is the oldest Chinatown in North America and one of the largest Chinese enclaves outside Asia. It is also the oldest and largest of the four notabl ...

. By the end of 1870, Rev. Gibson had erected the building of the "Chinese Mission Institute". In October 1871, the first woman, Jin Ho, was rescued from the bay where she had attempted suicide. She then worked in a Christian family and in two years married a Christian Chinese. In 1873 a school was opened with Miss L. S. Templeton as teacher. The school mainly taught English and other necessary skills to Chinese and Japanese women and girls who had been rescued from slavery or prostitution in San Francisco Chinatown. The "Oriental Home and School", as the home was sometimes called, was run by the Women's Missionary Society of the Pacific Coast. In 1893, after formal recognition of its work by the

Women's Home Missionary Society The Woman's Home Missionary Society was founded in 1880 after 50 women church members met in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Cincinnati "to confer together concerning the organization of a society having for its purpose the amelioration of the con ...

, it was incorporated into the larger Women's Home Missionary Society. Together they worked to rescue and educate young women. By 1901, about 500 women and girls had been helped. That same year, a two-story concrete building with 22 rooms, the "Oriental Home for Women and Girls" at 912 Washington Street in San Francisco's Chinatown, was dedicated by the Women's Home Missionary Society. Unfortunately, this building, along with most of San Francisco Chinatown, was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire. After the great quake and fire, Julia Morgan designed the replacement residence, a new three-story brick building with accommodations for 60 to 70 girls -- orphaned, rescued or abandoned. It was built at 940 Washington Street in San Francisco Chinatown and was dedicated by the Women's Home Missionary Society in 1912. Meanwhile, the Chinese Methodist Church was rebuilt in 1911 on the corner of Washington and Stockton Streets at 920 Washington Street. Later in the 1940s, the three-story brick building at 940 Washington Street, designed by Julia Morgan for the "Oriental Home", was renamed the ''Gum Moon Women's Residence''.

References

{{reflist Chinese-American history Christian missions in China 1870 establishments in California History of women in California History of San Francisco