Posted: 24 May 2013 05:57 AM PDT
By Jim Miller
It’s easy to miss, tucked away at the elbow of 19th and E streets just above
Interstate 5: the Japanese American Christian Church in Golden Hill. You’d most
likely drive past this humble place of worship on the way up Broadway without
noticing it, but if you happened to be on a stroll down E Street looking at the
nice old houses, you’d stumble upon it after the bigger homes give way to a
series of California bungalows. It’s there before E
turns right into 19th.
Across the street from the church, a chain-link fence lines the sidewalk above
the 5 where the homeless set up camp on a regular basis before they are swept
out and relocated only to return again when the police shift their attention
elsewhere. Historically, the church itself is a product of a relocation of a
different sort. As my City College colleague, historian Susan Hasegawa informed
me, it was originally founded as the Japanese Holiness Church by Christian
Nikkei (immigrants and their descendents) in 1930 and located on Newton Avenue.
Sponsored by the Oriental Mission Society, the church focused its efforts on
outreach to Issei (first generation immigrant) farmers.
No comments:
Post a Comment