Culture & continuity
Keep Chinese heritage present in community life. Share our photographs, preserve our records and create space for elders and younger generations to learn from one another.
Our principles →Chee Kung Tong · Supreme Lodge · Chinatown
San Francisco.
Our Home.
Our Legacy.
舊金山致公總堂・薪火相傳
Explore our chapterConnect with us1848San Francisco roots
178 yearsCalendar-year heritage
36 SpoffordOur Chinatown home
A place of belonging · 立足華埠
More than an address.
A home for our shared story.
We carry a Hongmen tradition of fellowship into a present-day commitment to cultural preservation, mutual support and service to the community.
A heritage across generations · 承先啟後
Our roots run deep.
Our story continues.
UC Berkeley’s archival research describes Chee Kung Tong as established in 1848. That founding tradition anchors our chapter’s sense of continuity; the surviving records let us explore the people and events that shaped its later history.
A July 1911 photograph records Sun Yat-sen with associates in San Francisco. Photographs of Hongmen gatherings in 1918, 1921 and 1923 document a lodge connected to a wider community. In 2018, historical materials entered the care of UC Berkeley’s C. V. Starr East Asian Library, helping preserve this record for future generations.
Our story is both local and transpacific. Its heart remains the people who gather, remember and serve here in San Francisco.
Read our sourced history →
Images entrusted to the chapter · 珍藏影像
Faces from the collection.
Stories recovered.
These two portraits were supplied from the chapter’s image collection.
These portraits are founders of the San Francisco lodge.
Preserving the places in our memory
Our original home.
An enduring legacy.
Buildings become part of a community’s memory. Their meeting rooms, signs and gathering places give a physical home to relationships that can endure for generations.
This photograph preserves a view of our original San Francisco chapter building. Its balconies, exterior stairway and Chinese Freemasons signage form part of the visual history of our lodge.
Explore the archival gallery →The chapter today · 今日總堂
A living institution.
A shared responsibility.
Community & care
Our relationship with Chinese Hospital connects the lodge to a wider San Francisco tradition of community care. Explore the history of that affiliation and the chapter’s continuing involvement.
Chinese Hospital →Fellowship & participation
Bring people together through shared interests, cultural events and service. Discover the local martial arts and lion dance traditions connected with our community.
Martial arts & lion dance →People carrying the work forward.
Clifton LeungPresident
Ping ChiuVice President
Olivia LamTreasurer
Alan ChiuPrincipal Historian
Leadership information supplied by the San Francisco chapter, September 2026.
Meet our executive members →An image from the wider brotherhood
Connections beyond San Francisco.
The supplied procession photograph belongs to the wider Chee Kung Tong story. The National Library of New Zealand identifies it as a Chinese Freemasons procession on Frederick Street in Wellington, cataloged as 1924. It is included here as part of the chapter-supplied collection, clearly distinguished from photographs of our own San Francisco branch.
守義致公・服務社群・薪火相傳
Our history is entrusted to us.
Our future is built together.
Chee Kung Tong Supreme Lodge
36 Spofford Street · San Francisco, CA 94108
Please contact the chapter to arrange a visit.
Historical sources & photograph notes
UC Berkeley librarians’ archive research poster supports the 1848 founding tradition and the 2018 archival collection history. Berkeley’s July 1911 photograph record and the linked 1923 record document later gatherings. Additional historical sources are collected on our History & Legacy page. The original San Francisco chapter building is identified by the chapter; the Wellington procession is identified separately. The year count is the current calendar year minus 1848, not an exact anniversary calculation.