Chinese American Churches collection

Collection

Identifier: 2026-M-7-CACC

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Materials related to Chinese American churches, primarily in the Los Angeles region, including Chinese Presbyterian Church, Chinese Congregational Church and the Chinese Methodist Church.

Dates

1956-1996
Undated

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open to researchers and to the public for access. Please contact the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California for more information.

Biographical / Historical

The First Chinese Presbyterian Church was established in 1876 in the Los Angeles Chinatown area and was first located on San Pedro St at First St. The church home moved a couple of times before settling in East Adams in 1939 at 631 East Adams Boulevard as a church and for the East Adams community. The church also had a Chinese language school that children could attend, which was initially established in 1934.

In May 1967, the First Chinese Presbyterian Church merged with the Lincoln Heights area 2nd Presbyterian Church from the Lincoln Heights area, and it was renamed to True Light Chinese Presbyterian Church.

Alhambra True Light Presbyterian Church (ATLPC) was then established in May 1996, as a result of the merger of True Light Chinese Presbyterian Church and the First Presbyterian Church of Alhambra.

Extent

2 Sheets

Language of Materials

English

Chinese

Additional Description

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Provenance is unconfirmed and unknown. First Presbyterian Church 80th Anniversary program as well as photograph of Reverend Philip Yung Lee are possibly donated by Jimmie Lee. Other two programs may have belonged to Dorothy Y Lew. The ATLPC photographs may be from Howard Wong to Win Tong.

Related Materials

Paul Louie Collection and Alfred Chu Collection located at CHSSC also includes materials related to the Chinese Presbyterian Church.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by archivist Riona Tsai. The programs were found in the archive on their own, and the photographs were found in a miscellaneous collections box. They were put together in its own folder to create a small collection.

When other Chinese American church materials were found in the archive, the scope of this collection was to include other Chinese American churches generally and were added to this collection. The name of the collection was changed from "Chinese Presbyterian Church collection" to "Chinese American Churches collection" to reflect this change.