Our Mission:

The mission of SDCHM is to collect, preserve and share the Chinese American experience and Chinese history, culture and art to educate our diverse community and its visitors.

History:

In 1986, the San Diego Chinese Historical Society formed in order to preserve and share Chinese and Chinese American history and culture. Ten years later, it founded a museum, which has outgrown its original building, welcomed over 800 current members, launched successful education and community outreach programs and become a landmark in the downtown community.

The society initially formed to rescue the Chinese Mission building, built in 1927 and designed by the nephew of famed local architect Irving Gill, which served as a place of worship and a social center for San Diego’s Chinese community for over thirty years.  The building lay outside the proposed Asian Pacific Historic District and in the path of redevelopment, but after two years of effort, the City of San Diego approved a plan to relocate and renovate the Chinese Mission building as a home for the museum.  After raising approximately $460,000 for the relocation and renovation of the mission building, the museum officially opened on January 13, 1996.