20 points
San Francisco Is Notorious by Cameron
June 4th, 2006 6:36 PM
I found a notorious San Francisco tale that shares my name:
The Cameron House
1896: At 920 Sacramento Street, in Chinatown, stood the Presbyterian Mission House; or "Cameron House". Run by Donaldina Cameron, an immigrant from New Zealand, it was a safehouse for Chinese immigrants wishing to escape from prostitution and virtual slavery. Donaldina went so far as to recruit policemen to break into brothels to rescue unwilling prositutes and slaves, and protected them when their owners tried to use legal means to retrieve them. Members of local organized crime and the former slaveowners did everything in their power to retreive thier 'property', legal and otherwise and the House was under constant attack.
Due to her work, she acquired two nicknames: the angry slaveholders and criminals called her Fahn Quai, which means foreign devil, and the girls she rescued called her Lo Mo, or old mother.
The house was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, and Doaldina risked a raging fire to retrive the documents that gave her legal guardianship of the girls, protecting them even when the house was gone. She went on to a long career in immigrant advocacy, and is credited with destroying the Chinese slave trade, and resccuing over 3000 girls.
However, due to it's violent past, and the deaths of several girls in the 1906 fire, the rebuilt structure on the house is widely rumored to be haunted...
The Cameron House
1896: At 920 Sacramento Street, in Chinatown, stood the Presbyterian Mission House; or "Cameron House". Run by Donaldina Cameron, an immigrant from New Zealand, it was a safehouse for Chinese immigrants wishing to escape from prostitution and virtual slavery. Donaldina went so far as to recruit policemen to break into brothels to rescue unwilling prositutes and slaves, and protected them when their owners tried to use legal means to retrieve them. Members of local organized crime and the former slaveowners did everything in their power to retreive thier 'property', legal and otherwise and the House was under constant attack.
Due to her work, she acquired two nicknames: the angry slaveholders and criminals called her Fahn Quai, which means foreign devil, and the girls she rescued called her Lo Mo, or old mother.
The house was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, and Doaldina risked a raging fire to retrive the documents that gave her legal guardianship of the girls, protecting them even when the house was gone. She went on to a long career in immigrant advocacy, and is credited with destroying the Chinese slave trade, and resccuing over 3000 girls.
However, due to it's violent past, and the deaths of several girls in the 1906 fire, the rebuilt structure on the house is widely rumored to be haunted...
You sir, are moving up.