2031 Bush Street

1. 1911

   The newly founded Kinmon Gakuen (Golden Gate Institute) held its Japanese language school in a rented earlier building on this site, under its first principal Masayoshi Kamada.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
2. 1924

   Built.

3. April 17, 1925

   After years of fundraising, the Kinmon Gakuen Foundation bought the parcel for $24,000 to build a purpose-built school.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
4. November 29, 1925

   Ground was broken for the new Kinmon Gakuen building, after the school's earlier building on the site had been demolished.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
5. 1926

   Purpose-built premises for the Kinmon Gakuen, or Golden Gate School, a Japanese language school that had first enrolled pupils in 1911 and taught ikebana, Japanese instruments and etiquette alongside the language.

   Japantown Historic Context Statement, May 2009
6. April 26, 1926

   The Mediterranean Revival school building, designed by William C. Hays and built for $46,545 with money raised by the Issei community and a $44,500 Anglo California Bank loan, was dedicated; classes began soon after.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
7. 1931

   Prince and Princess Takamatsu of Japan visited classes at the school.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
8. 1933

   Prince and Princess Kaya of Japan visited the school.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
9. 1940

   A projection (moving-picture) booth was built for the school auditorium, later home to the weekend Japanese film nights of the 1950s and 60s.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
10. 1942

    One of the places in the city where San Francisco's Japanese community was ordered to register and report for processing in 1942 before wartime removal.

    Japantown Historic Context Statement, May 2009
11. 1942

    The Booker T. Washington Community Service Center leased this building in 1942 and stayed until 1952. It had housed the Kinmon Gakuen Japanese language school until the incarceration of the city's Japanese American population that year.

    African American Citywide Historic Context Statement, adopted 2024
12. January 10, 1943

    The Booker T. Washington Community Service Center opened a Red Cross center for Black San Franciscans in the building, offering public-health services such as chest X-rays during a tuberculosis outbreak.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
13. 1945

    The Booker T. Washington Center moved into the building during the war and, with the American Friends Service Committee, ran a men's hostel here for those returning from the internment camps; the language school had reopened by 1949.

    Japantown Historic Context Statement, May 2009
14. May 1952

    Kinmon Gakuen moved back into its building once the Booker T. Washington center had left, reopening here with 88 pupils.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
15. 1954

    The school's teachers began adult English classes, after weekend American citizenship classes started on its return.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
16. 1960

    Japan's Crown Prince Akihito and the Crown Princess visited the school, drawing thousands into the street.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
17. 1977

    Nihonmachi Little Friends, a bilingual Japanese childcare center, leased the auditorium, and new restrooms, a kitchen and an office were put in.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
18. November 1977

    The Redevelopment Agency photographed the property.

    Redevelopment Agency Records (SFH 371), San Francisco Public Library
19. 1987

    Aluminium-sash windows were fitted within existing window openings.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
20. Dec 1987

    Permit 8717729 $$$ $700

    Install windows.

21. 1990

    More aluminium windows replaced original windows in the classrooms.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
22. Jan 1990

    Permit 9000396 $$$ $8,500

    Reroofing.

23. Jul 1990

    Permit 9014895 $$$ $900

    Install two aluminum windows.

24. Feb 1992

    Permit 9202927 $$$ $5,000

    Alterations.

25. Apr 1997

    Permit 9706015 $$$ $4,000

    Deck & stairway repairs.

26. 2009

    Recorded in the city's 2009 survey of Japantown as the Kinmon Gakuen building, by then also home to Nihonmachi Little Friends, and taken as representative of the neighborhood's school buildings.

    Japantown Historic Context Statement, May 2009
27. 2018

    Nihonmachi Little Friends left the building for a permanent home in the historic Japanese YWCA on Sutter Street.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
28. October 22, 2019

    Designated San Francisco Landmark No. 288, Kinmon Gakuen.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
29. Aug 2026

    Filed Permit 202607275627 $$$ $8,200,000

    Rehab and voluntary strutural upgrade of kinmon gauken building with associated architectural, ada & mep upgrades, new elevator, heating sys, new trans switch & heating sys, plumbing fixt, mechanical rooms. f/s under sep permit.

The city's Japantown context statement has the Kinmon Gakuen in its purpose-built premises here by 1926; the assessor's roll and Planning's historic resource survey both record 1924. The school is said to have reopened here by 1949, though it also reopened in rented space elsewhere and returned only in May 1952.