Japanese YWCA

1. 1912

   The Japanese YWCA, which later built this building, was founded in San Francisco by Issei women barred from the city's main YWCA.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
2. 1921

   The Japanese YWCA, the first independent Japanese YWCA in the country, moved into a house on this site at 1826 Sutter Street, bought for $6,500 largely with money its Issei members raised. Because the Alien Land Law barred them from owning property, the San Francisco YWCA bought it and held it in trust for them.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
3. 1932

   Built in 1932 for the Japanese YWCA to a design by Julia Morgan, paid for from within the Japantown community and by the national and San Francisco YWCAs. It held a dormitory for ten, classrooms and meeting rooms, a library and an office, and appears to be the only building in the United States purpose-built by and for Issei women. Because the Alien Land Law barred Issei from owning property, the San Francisco YWCA held the title in trust for the community.

   Japantown Historic Context Statement, May 2009
4. March 1937

   The Japanese YWCA gave a tea for Helen Keller before her speaking tour of Japan.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
5. 1942

   After the forced removal of the city's Japanese American population, the Japanese YWCA here was turned over to the San Francisco YWCA and leased from 1942 to 1959 to the American Friends Service Committee, which ran programmes for the Western Addition's new residents. The organiser of the 1963 March on Washington taught a seven-week course in the building and lodged there.

   African American Citywide Historic Context Statement, adopted 2024
6. September 1942

   The American Friends Service Committee's Friends Center here became the West Coast headquarters of the council that moved Japanese American students out of the camps and into colleges, with fifteen to twenty staff working from the auditorium and stage until the council moved to Philadelphia the following March.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
7. 1943

   The San Francisco chapter of the Committee on Racial Equality (CORE) was founded and based here, and Bayard Rustin came from New York to teach a seven-week course in nonviolent action against racial discrimination.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
8. 1945–1946

   After the war the American Friends Service Committee used the building and let returning Japanese American women organise activities and take shelter there. The Japanese YWCA was not re-formed; it joined the Buchanan YMCA instead, making the first combined YWCA/YMCA in the country.

   Japantown Historic Context Statement, May 2009
9. 1954

   The first Mattachine Society Convention was held here on 15-16 May 1954, when the building was in use as the American Friends Service Committee Center.

   Donna J. Graves and Shayne E. Watson, Citywide Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco, San Francisco Planning Department, adopted by the Historic Preservation Commission November 18, 2015
10. January 1, 1960

    The San Francisco YWCA took the building back and ran it as the Western Addition YWCA.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
11. August 20, 1964

    Photographed.

    San Francisco Subjects Photograph Collection (SFP 162), San Francisco Public Library
12. 1970

    The Gestalt Fool Theatre played weekend shows here over five weeks, advertised to San Francisco's communes through the Kaliflower newsletter — admission free on mentioning the paper.

    Donna Graves for San Francisco Heritage, Citywide Historic Context Statement for Counterculture (1965–1975), San Francisco Planning Department, adopted 17 July 2024
13. August 1975

    The Redevelopment Agency photographed the property, then the Japantown YWCA.

    Redevelopment Agency Records (SFH 371), San Francisco Public Library
14. November 1977

    The Redevelopment Agency photographed the property, then the Japantown YWCA.

    Redevelopment Agency Records (SFH 371), San Francisco Public Library
15. Jul 1981

    Permit 8105916 $$$ $25,000

    Additions alterations or repairs.

16. Jun 1988

    Permit 8807423 $$$ $11,000

    Women's lavatory/janitor closet renovation, code work.

17. Jul 1988

    Permit 8810116 $$$ $11,750

    Alterations @ 2nd fl bathrm, convert room to office.

18. Sep 1988

    Permit 8814149 $$$ $10,000

    Alter exist 2nd floor bathrm, incl finishes, fixtures.

19. Jan 1989

    Permit 8900808 $$$ $9,950

    Reroofing.

20. Aug 1991

    Permit 9114391 $$$ $23,013

    Alteration of 2nd floor, repair leak at skylight.

21. Jun 1992

    Permit 9209370 $$$ $10,500

    1st floor conf rm-new sound resistant ceiling. minor alter etc.

22. September 30, 1997

    Soko Bukai, the association of Japanese Christian churches, sued in Superior Court to remove the San Francisco YWCA as trustee of the building, after the YWCA put it up for sale at $1.65 million; the Issei women's trust had been rediscovered in the YWCA's own minutes of the 1920s.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
23. 1999

    When the San Francisco YWCA announced plans to sell the building, which then housed a bilingual pre-school, community members went to law to establish the Japanese American community's claim to it, and succeeded.

    Japantown Historic Context Statement, May 2009
24. November 27, 2001

    Six weeks before trial the case settled: Nihonmachi Little Friends, the preschool in the building, bought it and the lot next door at 1834 Sutter Street for $733,000, bound to keep it in community use and teach its history.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
25. Jun 2003

    Issued Permit 200306237635 $$$ $20,000

    Reroofing.

26. Dec 2006

    Permit 200612049115 $$$ $12,000

    Reroofing.

27. Feb 2007

    Permit 200702154254 $$$ $30,000

    Voluntary partially seismic upgrade @ basement only. install foundation anchors and plywood shear walls. repair/reconstruct existing accessible ramp from sidewalk to sideyard to bring into full compliance, reslope sidewalk.

28. May 2008

    Permit 200805272960 $$$ $12,000

    Reroofing.

29. 2009

    Recorded in the city's 2009 survey of Japantown as the Japantown YWCA, taken as representative of the neighborhood's community centres and social halls.

    Japantown Historic Context Statement, May 2009
30. Oct 2009

    Issued Permit 200910219501 $$$ $50,000

    Barrier removal & remodel of an existing children's bathroom.

31. Oct 2009

    Permit 200910269852 $$$ $70,000

    Replace existing stage lighting system, remove and replace plaster cladding on stage wall. remove and replace stage ceiling. install new hardwood floor on stage. refinishe wood work on stage. install shoji screen on stage.

32. Nov 2011

    Permit 201111088501 $$$ $100,000

    Remodel existing kitchen in day care.

33. Jun 2014

    Permit 201406269518 $$$ $2,098,700

    2 story preschool building addition with rooftop play yard.

34. Feb 2016

    Permit 201602028659 $$$ $100,000

    Underpinning for work done under approved pa 2014 0626 9518 (addition to it - preschool).

35. Apr 2016

    Permit 201604013695 $$$ $70,000

    Fire sprinkler addition for new bld addition basement 22. 1st floor - 34. 2nd floor - 16. 72 total. replace backflow. ref: 2014-0626-9518.

36. May 2016

    Permit 201605066771 $$$ $25,000

    All floors: provide & install new fire alarm control unit, initiating & modification devices as shown on drawings. ref pa 2014-0626-9518. 67 smoke, 8 heat, 3 pull stn, 8 str, 22 spkr/str, 3 spkr.

37. 2017

    A one-storey addition over a raised basement, with an enclosed rooftop play area, was built on the west side to HKIT Architects' design.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
38. January 10, 2020

    Listed on the National Register of Historic Places for the history of Issei and Nisei women, for the civil-rights organising of Bayard Rustin and CORE, and for the Mattachine Society's first convention.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
39. Jan 2020

    Permit 202001172258 $$$ $150,000

    Replace all existing exterior windows with new wood windows in existing openings. new windows to have divided lites to match existing windows and operation to match existing windows.

40. April 20, 2021

    Designated San Francisco Landmark No. 291, Japanese YWCA/Issei Women's Building.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
41. Aug 2021

    Permit 202108116224 $$$ $26,000

    Disconnect and move hvac unit to repair roof leak underneath. repair roof membrane via removal and replacment of torch down memebrane. reinstall hvac and ducting to original positions. remove hvac unit electric breaker box shut off control and service outlet and replace with new disconnect gas line &.

DBI holds 36 permits for this parcel, most of them tenant improvements on individual floors. The timeline shows the 24 largest by stated cost, plus the earliest on file; the DBI query in the sources below returns all 36. 6 of them are nominal $1 street-space or sidewalk permits. 4 expired or cancelled permits are not shown. Accounts differ on when the fight over the building went to court: the 1999 entry dates it then, while the Soko Bukai suit was filed on 30 September 1997, after the San Francisco YWCA announced the sale in 1996.