Gum Moon Women's Residence records , 1858-2022

Gum Moon Women's Residence, previously known as the Oriental Home and School, is a United Methodist Women National Mission Institution that provides women and children in geographic and social transition with short-term housing and life skills training and has served the Asian immigrant community of the San Francisco Bay Area since 1868.

In 1868, United Methodist missionaries Reverend Dr. Otis T. Gibson and his wife Eliza began rescuing young women who had been sold into slavery and prostitution from brothels in San Francisco's Chinatown. On October 29, 1870, the Women's Missionary Society of the Pacific Coast of the Methodist Episcopal Church was founded by Rev. Dr. Gibson and eleven United Methodist women with the goal of providing shelter, education, and vocational training for Chinese girls and women rescued from human trafficking. By the end of 1870, the Chinese Mission Institute building, later known as the Oriental Home and School, was erected at 916 Washington Street in San Francisco's Chinatown.

In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law by President Chester Arthur, suspending Chinese immigration to the United States. In response, the Oriental Home and School formed a kindergarten for Chinese children who were banned by law from attending public schools.

By the early twentieth century, the Oriental Home and School began serving as an orphanage for Chinese girls and babies in response to the growing number of children being abandoned by poor families.

The Oriental Home and School building was destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. A new residence was built at 940 Washington Street in 1912 with Julia Morgan as the architect. A group of child residents of the home spent six months touring the United States, performing songs and dances to raise money for the building construction. The tour included a performance for President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House.

In the 1940s, the Oriental Home and School was renamed Gum Moon, or "Golden Door" in Cantonese, and its mission changed from providing an orphanage to offering transitional housing to low-income single women pursuing an education or career.

In 1984, the Asian Women's Resource Center was established to assist a growing Asian immigrant community with language barriers. The center provided employment and referral programs, ESL classes, and parent-child development programs. Additional Asian Family Support Centers were added in the Richmond and Sunset neighborhoods of San Francisco in 2003.

Throughout the years, Gum Moon adapted its mission to meet changing social needs and expanded to serve women of all ages and backgrounds in geographical and social transition. As of 2024, Gum Moon Women's Residence and the Asian Women's Resource Center continue to offer safe and affordable housing to women in crisis and provide education and community-building resources to immigrant families.