San Francisco Ghosts

13. Cameron House

San Francisco, CA

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The next stop on our tour brings us to Chinatown. The Cameron House is named for Donaldina Cameron who started to work at the house in the late 1800s. At the time, the house was called the Occidental Mission Home for Girls, and helped young Chinese immigrant girls escape what was known as the Yellow Slave Trade. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century many young Chinese girls were smuggled into the United States and sold into slavery. The Occidental Mission Home for Girls was there to help those girls. Donaldina Cameron became superintendant of the home in 1897. Once Donaldina was able to save the girls from their slavery, the girls had to stay in the home and were forced to convert to Christianity. Many of the girls welcomed the safe haven, while others did not like being forced to convert to a new religion. During the earthquake the original building was destroyed and the building had to be rebuilt where it stands today. When the new structure was build, Donaldina made sure secret passages were constructed so the girls could hide whenever police were sent to the house to pick up illegal aliens. Oftentimes the tunnels worked and the girls were safe from deportation. However one day several years after the new building was constructed, a fire broke out, and many of the girls were locked in the secret passages, burning until they died. There are few stories of actual hauntings, and today the building still helps the Asian community through services that promote a Christian outlook on life. The basement remains locked, however sometimes a figure appears as a reminder of the horrific accident that occurred at the house.