Preserving a Bit of History

Preserving a Bit of History. (Chinese Temple). This property was once Cambria’s historical “Chinese Center,” the social focus for workers who harvested seaweed and abalone for shipment back to China, or worked in local quicksilver (mercury) mines in the mountains., Here local Chinese once celebrated holidays, gambled, socialized, and took refuge from the coastal storms. Buildings included a bunk house, laundries, cabins and a structure people have called the “Chinese Temple.” It had both fraternal and religious uses. Of the structures that served the Chinese Center, only the Chinese Temple remains. Original buildings like this dating from the 1890s are rare in California., Chinese left the site about 1916, and the Warren family purchased the property. The older and less stable buildings were eventually torn down, with only the “Red House,” familiar to Cambrians remaining. Its core dated from between 1895-1906. About 1919 a building from Main Street was moved and joined to it to form a kitchen. Then in 1925 the former Chinese temple was moved from near the creek and added – making one dwelling out of three parts. This composite structure was occupied until 1970. In 2001 the dilapidated portions of the Red House were demolished leaving only the original temple building to be restored, by Greenspace – The Cambria Land Trust, to its historical setting and appearance.