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The Ming Quong Home was an orphanage for Chinese girls built in 1925 in what was then known as Beulah Heights. The building was designed by Julia Morgan  in 1924. It was run by the Presbyterian Board of Missions. There was also a home at 51 - 9th Street at Fallon which opened in 1915, where the older girls lived. 3,7 Ming Quong means "radiant light."

The land was first purchased in 1919 1 to be an orphanage for Chinese girls, similar to the Chung Mei Home in Berkeley for Chinese boys. 2 Ground was broken in 1924. The contractor was D. B. Farquaharson. 2

Donaldina Cameron was driving force behind the founding of the home, and the superintendent until 1930. 1 Ethel Higgins was superintendent 1930 to c.1949. 4

Sometime around 1935-1937, the Ming Quong Home moved some of the girls to the summer camp in Los Gatos and some to the home in Chinatown, 5,6 and the building became a dormitory for Mills College. In 2004, the building became the Julia Morgan School for Girls.

About the 9th Street Home

Links and References

  1. $75,000 Home to go up for Chinese Girls Oakland Tribune August 28, 1919
  2. $125,000 Home Dedicated for Chinese Girls Oakland Tribune December 14, 1925
  3. Chinese Children's Home to Celebrate Oakland Tribune November 7, 1935
  4. Sermon Topics - First Presbyterian Oakland Tribune June 26, 1949
  5. Presbyterians and Prostitutes San Jose Inside
  6. Hometown Chinatown by Eva Armentrout Ma
  7. Orphaned girls found a home in post-war Chinatown KALW Crosscurrents
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