7: YWCAs and Collaboration with Hussey

Organizations such as the YWCA, Methodist Chinese Mission, and Emmanu-El sisterhood provided safe housing, recreation and educational and vocational opportunities[1] for women recently arrived in San Francisco or earning minimum wage. Phoebe Hearst recommended Morgan to design the YWCAs and even donated land at Asilomar near Monterey for a YWCA camp. Commissions for other YWCAs followed. She also designed buildings in Oakland, San Jose, Vallejo, Salt Lake City, Pasadena, Fresno, Long Beach, Hollywood, Honolulu, and San Francisco. Shown here are designs from the Oakland and Pasadena YWCAs.  Many of these buildings, although no longer run by the YWCA, remain in use as community centers—i.e., the Chinatown YWCA is now the Chinese Historical Society of America.

Edward Bright Hussey graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in architecture in 1923. From 1926 to 1927 Hussey represented Julia Morgan in Honolulu during the building of the YWCA. As part of his duties, he wrote and sent daily progress reports to Morgan to be mailed on the weekly ship to San Francisco along with rolls of film and annotated and dated drawings.  Some of these can be seen on this panel.  He lived in Japan from 1927 to 1930 while supervising the Tokyo YWCA construction for Morgan. She also worked with Hussey on Principia College, Wyntoon, and Hearst Castle.