1874 – Occidental Mission Home for Girls

Founded in 1874 by the Presbyterian Church as the Occidental Mission Home for Girls, the home’s initial purpose was to intervene on behalf of vulnerable young Asian immigrants. Forbidden from legally entering the United States by the Chinese Exclusion Act, these girls and women were smuggled into the country and sold as commodities in what came to be known as the “Yellow Slave Trade”.

Sold into slavery, often by their own families, and trapped into bogus “contracts” that made it impossible to buy their freedom, many thousands of immigrant women died as prostitutes and domestic servants in San Francisco.

The Occidental Mission Home for Girls, the “Home” as it was known then, rescued these girls and taught them skills and faith.