Donaldina Cameron House: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 16:25, 6 January 2014

Historical Essay

by Art Peterson

Donaldina Cameron with some of her charges.

Photo: California Society of Pioneers

Cameron House today.

Photo: Chris Carlsson

This substantial building at 920 Sacramento Street, known as the Donaldina Cameron House, ranks high among San Francisco’s allegedly haunted locations. While ghostbusters can produce an impressive list of other frequently seen apparitions—for instance, the woman in white at Stow Lake, said to be searching for her toddler who drowned in a boating accident; and the appearance in the lobby mirror of the Curran Theater of the ghostly image of a ticket taker, murdered there in the 1930s—none of these sightings compare in poignancy and cultural significance with the demise of the young Chinese women whose eerie personages are said to revisit the building after being burned to death here behind a locked door.

Here’s how this tragedy happened. Donaldina Cameron, a 19-year-old New Zealander, arrived at this address in 1888, then the Presbyterian Mission House, to teach sewing to residents of the mission, all young Chinese girls. The Mission House had not been these girls’ first stop in the United States. Most of them had been shipped from China at a prepubescent age to work as indentured servants in San Francisco. Others had been kidnapped and sold as household slaves. In both cases, when the girls reached womanhood, their lives entered a new chapter. They were sold into short, violent, and miserable lives as prostitutes, a “career” that offered a life expectancy of about five years. The Presbyterian mission was committed to rescuing these young women, but with the arrival of Donaldina Cameron the organization’s commitment became a fervent cause.

Cameron had an uncanny knack of smelling out the brothels, often hidden behind trap doors. Sometimes enlisting the help of the Chinatown police squad, she would be engaged in action-movie type chases over rooftops and down dark alleys. To the tongs, the criminal organizations that bankrolled the brothels, Cameron was Fahn Quai, the white devil, and “the Jesus woman,” who, they told their captives, would drink the blood of the liberated girls to keep up her vitality.

Cameron, while not a blood drinker, did indeed have an agenda: to convert her emancipated charges to Christianity. She rescued and educated an estimated 3,000 girls. While many took positively to the transformation, calling Cameron Lo Ma, (little mother) and even naming their children “Donaldina,” others ran away from the home.

The Mission House was regularly under assault, sometimes by the brothel owners, but also, ironically, by the police sent by the powers-that-be to roust “illegal aliens.” So in 1908, after the mission was demolished in the 1906 earthquake and fire, Cameron made sure the basement of the new structure was constructed with hidden passages behind which the girls could hide. Some years later, when a fire broke out, several of the girls were trapped and burned to death in the very rooms that were supposed to keep them safe. It is these unfortunate souls that are believed to have been left behind to haunt the premises. While today Cameron House acts as a neighborhood social service center, the doors to the basement remain sealed. Knowledge of this disaster has pretty much passed into history except for an occasional sighting of a wispy figure who appears, to believers in such things, to be reminding us of the tragic end of these ill-starred young women.

Excerpted with permission from Art Peterson's book, "Why Is That Bridge Painted Orange?" published in 2013, by Inquiring Minds Productions.

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 '''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>Historical Essay</font></font> </font>'''
-''by Dr. Weirde''
+''by Art Peterson''
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 ''Photo: Chris Carlsson''
-Sacramento Street. From the early 1890's until 1939, 920 Sacramento Street was a rescue mission housing escaped Chinese slave girls. Sexual slavery flourished in Chinatown from the 1870's through the early 20th century. In 1849, Chinese men, like those from other nations, had rushed to the California gold fields. Later, employers such as large railroads, impressed by the hardworking Chinese, imported thousands more. Few women came along. In 1882, Congress passed the first of three [[Chinese Exclusion Law | Exclusion Acts]] which for all practical purposes banned further immigration of Orientals. Chinese men could not even send for their wives. As there were roughly 2000 Chinese men for every woman, the inexorable laws of supply and demand led the Chinese tong gangs to smuggle "daughters of joy" from China to San Francisco, where the women were auctioned off. Some were sold as wives or concubines, some as courtesans, and others as common prostitutes. Even very young girls were smuggled and sold; they would serve as domestic slaves until they reached the age of nubility.
+This substantial building at 920 Sacramento Street, known as the Donaldina Cameron House, ranks high among San Francisco’s allegedly haunted locations. While ghostbusters can produce an impressive list of other frequently seen apparitions—for instance, the woman in white at Stow Lake, said to be searching for her toddler who drowned in a boating accident; and the appearance in the lobby mirror of the Curran Theater of the ghostly image of a ticket taker, murdered there in the 1930s—none of these sightings compare in poignancy and cultural significance with the demise of the young Chinese women whose eerie personages are said to revisit the building after being burned to death here behind a locked door.
-The lot of the slave girls was not a happy one. Most wound up as prostitutes, plied their trade for five years or less, and died of venereal diseases before the age of twenty. Over ninety percent were afflicted by one or more STDs, in an age when antibiotics were unknown. Though some of the girls worked in the Parlor Houses, brothels of relative luxury, the majority turned tricks in the Cribs.
+Here’s how this tragedy happened. Donaldina Cameron, a 19-year-old New Zealander, arrived at this address in 1888, then the Presbyterian Mission House, to teach sewing to residents of the mission, all young Chinese girls. The Mission House had not been these girls’ first stop in the United States. Most of them had been shipped from China at a prepubescent age to work as indentured servants in San Francisco. Others had been kidnapped and sold as household slaves. In both cases, when the girls reached womanhood, their lives entered a new chapter. They were sold into short, violent, and miserable lives as prostitutes, a “career” that offered a life expectancy of about five years.
+The Presbyterian mission was committed to rescuing these young women, but with the arrival of Donaldina Cameron the organization’s commitment became a fervent cause.
-In 1873, the same year the first cable car began running, Bay Area church women began campaigning against yellow slavery. Founders of the movement included Mrs. Phoebe Apperson Hearst, grandmother of [[Patty Hearst's SLA Hideout|Patty]]. By the early 1890's, 920 Sacramento Street was the base of operations for the Christian ladies' war on the sex-slaving Tongs. Women like Margaret Culbertson, and later Donaldina Cameron, not only ran the shelter for escaped sex slaves, but actually led police raids on houses of ill repute and helped carry off "liberated" captives, who were set to work sewing and babysitting their younger housemates. Some girls were legally or illegally re-claimed by their masters, others ran away, some were deported, and a few stayed and ultimately became model citizens. The evangelical Christianity of the mission did not sit well with all of the girls, nor with the entire Chinese community, though relations were generally good. One hostile letter read: "Your religion is vain. It costs too much money. By what authority do you rescue girls? If there is any more of this work there will be a contest and blood may flow. Then we will see who is the strongest. We send you this warning. To all Christian teachers."
+Cameron had an uncanny knack of smelling out the brothels, often hidden behind trap doors. Sometimes enlisting the help of the Chinatown police squad, she would be engaged in action-movie type chases over rooftops and down dark alleys. To the tongs, the criminal organizations that bankrolled the brothels, Cameron was ''Fahn Quai'', the white devil, and “the Jesus woman,” who, they told their captives, would drink the blood of the liberated girls to keep up her vitality.
-The Tongs, of course, despised the Mission; once, in 1895, sticks of dynamite were found on the porch and in the window grating--enough to blow up a city block. But the indefatigable Christian ladies continued their work, rebuilding 920 Sacramento after the 1906 earthquake and continuing their work until 1939, when the decline of yellow slavery made it obsolete.
+Cameron, while not a blood drinker, did indeed have an agenda: to convert her emancipated charges to Christianity. She rescued and educated an estimated 3,000 girls. While many took positively to the transformation, calling Cameron Lo Ma, (little mother) and even naming their children “Donaldina,” others ran away from the home.
+The Mission House was regularly under assault, sometimes by the brothel owners, but also, ironically, by the police sent by the powers-that-be to roust “illegal aliens.” So in 1908, after the mission was demolished in the 1906 earthquake and fire, Cameron made sure the basement of the new structure was constructed with hidden passages behind which the girls could hide. Some years later, when a fire broke out, several of the girls were trapped and burned to death in the very rooms that were supposed to keep them safe. It is these unfortunate souls that are believed to have been left behind to haunt the premises.
+While today Cameron House acts as a neighborhood social service center, the doors to the basement remain sealed. Knowledge of this disaster has pretty much passed into history except for an occasional sighting of a wispy figure who appears, to believers in such things, to be reminding us of the tragic end of these ill-starred young women.
+<hr>
+[[Image:Bridge-cover final.jpg|left]] ''Excerpted with permission from Art Peterson's book, [http://www.amazon.com/That-Bridge-Orange-Francisco-Curious/dp/0926664190/ "Why Is That Bridge Painted Orange?"] published in 2013, by Inquiring Minds Productions.''
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-[[category:Chinatown]] [[category:women]] [[category:1890s]] [[category:1900s]] [[category:1910s]] [[category:1920s]] [[category:crime]] [[category:religion]]
+[[category:Chinatown]] [[category:women]] [[category:1880s]] [[category:1900s]] [[category:1910s]] [[category:1920s]] [[category:crime]] [[category:religion]]