auburn joss house chinese museum

The history of the Chinese role in the making in California is incredible. California was built on the labor or the Chinese. Railroads, aqueducts, levies, roads, dredging, everything. See this one for sure. Add to what you know.

On Saturday mornings, out in front of the court house, people meet for a guided tour of old town Auburn area; a great history lesson. When we got to the Joss House with our tour group, the owner was there and had the doors open for people to come in. It was quite interesting and we enjoyed hearing all the stories. I especially enjoyed taking pictures of the inside. A must if your visiting Auburn.

You'll have to work a bit & be somewhat lucky to see this place. It's hours are from 10-3pm on the first Saturday of the month and during the weekend of Placer County's Heritage Days on both Saturday & Sunday from 10-4pm. Your task will be to get there when they're actually open. This is an all volunteer operation, it's actual opening depends on someone being there.Built in the 1920's as a residence for a member of the Yue family it was shortly thereafter converted to the Joss House use after a fire destroyed a previous Joss House across the street. Part of Historical Old Town Auburn was the site of a Chinatown in that day. Joss Houses are traditionally places of worship, this Joss House had several functions. There's an altar area with representative figures from 3 major Chinese religions, a table to represent it also being a community center for the Chinese, some school desks & a chalkboard for Chinese School attended by the Chinese children after regular school, and a kitchen area to service the residents and any seasonal boarders who lived in small rooms below the main level. The last full time resident died in 1968 and the place was closed up. The vacant structure suffered from neglect and vandalism. In the mid 1990's a group of people cleaned it up and created the museum. It's fun, funky, a bit dark, and a bit dusty. It's a journey of exploration and discovery as you look at the artifacts, many of them were found on the premises during the clean up.& some donated from elsewhere as appropriate to the Museum.Be sure to ask about the story of the discovery of the pewter Temple altar pieces, there's a unique twist involving a 55 year absence & a bit of west coast WWII history.Look it up & see it before the modern mueumologists get in there..