What the Hung Sa Dahn File Gets Wrong

Dosan Ahn Chang Ho was born in 1878 near Pyongyang and emigrated to San Francisco in 1902 (p. 4). He became a leader of the Korean independence movement and, in 1919, acting premier of the Korean Provisional Government in China (p. 4). He founded the Hung Sa Dahn, or Young Korean Academy, in San Francisco in 1913 (pp. 15, 21).

According to the application, his family was in Los Angeles by 1914 (p. 17). He left Los Angeles for the last time in 1926 (p. 17). He died in Seoul on 10 March 1938 (The New Korea, 17 March 1938).

The house is a two-story Craftsman built in 1910, with a duplex behind it built in 1958 (p. 12). The July staff report says the Hung Sa Dahn used it as its headquarters from 1936 to 1978 (p. 3); the final staff report says 1936 to 1948 (final p. 4, below).

The July file is a Department of City Planning recommendation report and an application asking that the property be declared a Historic-Cultural Monument, for the Cultural Heritage Commission hearing of 15 July 2021 (p. 1). It has two parts.

Pages 1 to 5 are the staff report by City Planning. Pages 6 to 91 are the application the nominators submitted: Michelle Magalong (applicant), with Rosalind Sagara and Katherine Kim (preparers). Their text is on pp. 12 to 23; the rest is the form, photographs, permits, maps, clippings, a memoir by Dr. Marn Cha and a ZIMAS report.

There are two versions of the staff report. This article annotates the July 2021 file, and its page numbers refer to that file. The City later issued a final packet of 171 pages for the Cultural Heritage Commission hearing of 4 November 2021.

It holds a new final staff report (final pp. 2 to 8), correspondence from the owner’s representative (final pp. 54 to 80), the July staff report (final pp. 81 to 85) and the same application, unchanged (final pp. 86 to 171). The packet also has an index (p. 1), site inspection photographs (pp. 9 to 52) and a notice of exemption (p. 53).

The application’s pages sit in the final packet at the July page plus 80: July p. 15 is final p. 95, and July p. 47 is final p. 127. Page numbers marked “final” refer to the packet.

The 1936 date and the “direct efforts” are statements in the application (p. 15); the staff report’s summary also gives the 1936 date (pp. 3, 4). The July staff report does not test them. It recommends that the Commission take the property under consideration because the application and photographs suggest the submittal warrants further investigation (p. 2), and it finds that the property may be significant enough to warrant further investigation as a potential Historic-Cultural Monument (p. 5).

The July report asked the Commission only to take the property under consideration. The packet says the Commission voted to take the subject property under consideration on 15 July 2021 (final p. 8). The final report is the next stage and asks the Commission to Declare the subject property an Historic-Cultural Monument (final p. 3). What it rests on is set out in What City staff concluded.

The 1936 sentence has no footnote. Neither does anything else on pages 3, 4 or 15 about 1936, and the 1936 sentence on page 21 has none. The date appears ten times in the file, on pages 3, 4, 15, 21 and 22. Pages 3 to 5 carry no footnotes at all, and neither does page 15, where the date appears six times.

On page 21 the footnote after the 1936 sentence, 37, is on the sentence that follows it and cites the 1932 permit. The one 1936 with a footnote is on page 22, where Choon Har Kim appears to have resided at the subject property beginning in 1936, sourced in footnote 40 to page 1071 of the Hung Sa Dahn’s 2013 book.

That is a resident, not a purchase. The file attaches no deed and no record of a sale in 1936. The parcel report (p. 87) lists six deed reference numbers, which the application does not discuss. The earliest document in the file that names the Hung Sa Dahn as owner is the 1958 permit (p. 64).

The nearest source.

The application gives no footnote for the 1936 date on pages 15 or 21. It says that Much of the following information is taken from SurveyLA’s Korean American Historic Context Statement (p. 16). SurveyLA places the Young Korean Academy at 3421 South Catalina by 1936, with a city directory as the source for that sentence (survey p. 25, footnote 74: Los Angeles City Directory 1936, 1995.). The survey does not describe a purchase.

Dosan in 1936.

The New Korea of 17 March 1938 says he was seized in Shanghai in 1932 and that Released in 1935 he was again imprisoned, July 1937. Flip Ahn Cuddy’s chronology of Dosan’s life, which the Ahn family provided, says he was released from Daejon prison in February 1935 and arrested again on 28 June 1937.

The application’s page 17 lists his arrests as 1927, 1932, and 1937. So the application’s statement that he was imprisoned at the time of a 1936 acquisition does not match these records. Two other accounts give lengths that do not fit a 1935 release.

The New Korea says he was tried and imprisoned for four years and, in the next sentence, Released in 1935. The Los Angeles Times article of 7 October 1992 attached at p. 73 reports Susan Ahn as saying he died in 1938 after six years of imprisonment.

The chronology the Ahn family provided has a four-year prison term imposed on 19 December 1932 and his release on 10 February 1935. Page 17 says he was unable to physically see Hung Sa Dahn’s acquisition of the property. Page 21 says It is unknown how Hung Sa Dahn came to select and purchase the property. Page 15 says the acquisition was facilitated through his direct efforts. The application gives no document for either.

Either date, he was not in Los Angeles.

If the purchase was in 1932, Dosan was seized in Shanghai that year (The New Korea, 17 March 1938; the chronology the Ahn family provided). If it was in 1936, he had been released from Daejon prison in February 1935 and was living in Korea (the chronology). Either way he was in Korea or in Japanese custody, not in Los Angeles. Nothing in the file supports the statement that the purchase was facilitated through his direct efforts.

The newspaper.

The Sinhan Minbo is the Korean-language paper whose English page is headed The New Korea. The application places it at the Korean National Association hall: The Korean-language newspaper The New Korea, with a political bent, was published on site. (p. 20).

The application never cites an issue of it. Its bibliography lists the USC Korean American Digital Archive, where scans of the paper are held, and its photo captions credit that archive eleven times (pp. 42, 52 to 61). No footnote reaches the newspaper.

The Sinhan Minbo of 25 August 1932 ran a front-page headline reporting that the Hung Sa Dahn acquired a house. The article as scanned does not show a legible street address, so this article does not say which house it was. The masthead address on that issue is the newspaper’s own, not the house’s.

The permit.

On 16 August 1932 the City issued a building permit for 3421 South Catalina (p. 63; p. 12, fn 2). The form, filled in by hand, gives the permit number as 13253, the owner as John P. Lem and the owner’s address as 3421 South Catalina. The application attaches the permit and cites it twice (pp. 12, 21).

It never names him. The name Lem appears nowhere in the typed text of the 91 pages, only on the scanned permit. The permit names Lem as owner and gives 3421 South Catalina as his address. The application reads the same permit as evidence of a reception hall: a 1932 permit for an interior alteration indicates that there is a reception hall on the property (p. 21).

The application itself discusses the Alien Land Law on page 22, one of many U.S. alien land laws designed to effectively exclude Asian and other immigrants on the basis of race by preventing individuals ineligible for citizenship from being able to purchase, own, or lease property (p. 22).

Whether Lem held title for the Hung Sa Dahn is not established by any document in the file. The application does not say who held the lot at any time before the 1958 permit, and a 1932 record predates 1936 in any case.

John Cha’s letter.

The final packet adds a letter dated 8 October 2021 from John Cha (final pp. 61, 62), who writes that he has written about Korean American history, including Dosan Ahn Chang-Ho and his daughter, Susan Ahn Cuddy (final p. 61) and that he was retained by the owner of 3421-3423 S. Catalina Street (final p. 61).

It says that the Hung Sa Dahn, after operating in the Bunker Hill area, moved to 3421 Catalina Street in 1932 (final p. 62). That is a different year from the 1936 in both versions of the City’s report. In the passage quoted the letter names no document for the date and does not name Lem. John Cha is a different person from Dr. Marn Cha, whose memoir is attached to the application.

What it means.

The application asks the reader to accept a purchase in 1936 with no document. The one primary property record attached to the file for the early 1930s is a 1932 permit naming John P. Lem as owner, a name the application does not mention; whether he held title for the Hung Sa Dahn is not established by any document in the file.

A Korean newspaper headline of 25 August 1932 reports a Hung Sa Dahn house acquisition but no address is legible in our scan, so it is a lead not yet confirmed. Even a 1932 purchase would be six years after Dosan left Los Angeles for the last time.

A letter that names 1932.

Edward T. Chang, whose article the application cites at p. 17, fn 9 (listed there as Edward Taehan Chang), wrote to the Cultural Heritage Commission in a letter dated 2 November 2021. It says the Korean newspaper the Sinhan Minbo (August 25, 1932) reported that the Heungsadan purchased its headquarters building the Los Angeles and this was the first time in history this occurred, and that events were held at the building after it was purchased in 1932.

On the housewarming it says A housewarming party was held on October 2, 1932 at 8 p.m. according to a Sinhan Minbo article published on September 29, 1932 article. We have not seen that September article. The letter does not mention the 1932 permit or John P. Lem.

It also says Flip Cuddy has a long track record of trying to oppose historic designations of Dosan related sites. It is not part of the City’s packet. A copy reached Flip Ahn Cuddy the evening it was dated: Tom Byun forwarded it to him at 7 pm on 2 November 2021, saying someone had sent it to him.

A week after he died the Sinhan Minbo announced the service for Sunday 20 March at University Church. On the front page of its 24 March issue (its English page is dated Thursday 24 March) it printed a photograph of the service. Its English page reported that members conducted a two hour program at the University Methodist Church. Flip Ahn Cuddy places that church next to the Ahn family house, which the application says USC moved onto its campus in 2004 (pp. 17, 18).

The Sinhan Minbo notice and The New Korea give Sunday 20 March. The place is wrong. The application’s only source for “City Hall” is the Hung Sa Dahn’s own 2013 book. The newspaper the application itself describes as published at the Association hall (p. 20) printed the notice and a photograph of the service; the notice and the English page of the 24 March issue say church.

The application repeats the City Hall claim in text and in a caption, with one book behind both.

Philson, Susan and Soorah were all born after 1909 (the Ahn family’s chronology). The application’s own page 17 has the family in Los Angeles by 1914 and says that Upon arrival, they lived at 1411 West Fourth Street. A 1909 photograph at that address cannot be right by the application’s own account. The caption also names Soorah, who was born in 1917 (the Ahn family’s chronology).

Flip Ahn Cuddy identifies the children as Philip, Philson and Susan, his mother, at 1411 West 4th Street in 1915. He says his mother was born in the Fourth Street house. Asked about the 1909 date, he was blunt. The date written on one of the 1411 photos says 1915, he said. No way it’s 1909. My mom was born January 16, 1915, and lived to be 100. How many of her birthdays were based on 1915? All of them! My mom knew her birthday and so did I.

The caption is wrong about the year and, Flip Ahn Cuddy says, about who is in the picture. It moves the family to Fourth Street five years before the date the application gives for the family’s arrival in Los Angeles. The caption credits the Shades of L.A. Collection; the application does not say who wrote the caption, and its own page 17 contradicts it.

According to the Ahn family (Flip Ahn Cuddy), the photograph shows another Korean family, and not Helen Ahn. He says it was taken in Riverside and that the children are not the Ahn children. He told the City the same on 13 September 2021, in his reply to its email: not Helen, not in Los Angeles and not any Ahn children.

He identifies the children as Dollie Kim and Powell and Sadie Lee, a brother and sister, and says their mother, Lee (Kim) Song Nae (Emma), is not in the photograph. He does not name the woman.

By the chronology’s dates, the Ahn children in 1917 were Philip, Philson (5 July 1912), Susan (16 January 1915) and, from 27 May, Soorah. Flip Ahn Cuddy says Soorah was born in the Figueroa house. His 1996 essay on Philip Ahn gives Philip’s birth as March 29, 1905.

Page 40 is the one picture in the application meant to show Dosan’s wife, as its caption reads. Flip Ahn Cuddy says it is a picture of another Korean family.

Page 17 says he departed his home in Los Angeles for the last time in 1926. On the application’s own dates, the KNA hall was built in 1938 (p. 19), the Family Home was occupied in 1937 (p. 17), and the Catalina house was acquired in 1936 (p. 15). All three are after the 1926 departure the application gives. The permit attached to the file is dated 1932 (p. 63); 1932 is also after 1926. Page 16 itself only goes as far as directly associated with Ahn and during his lifetime.

The Korean Independence Memorial Building (HCM-548) is described on p. 16 as the Korean National Association’s headquarters. Page 19 says the Association built a simple structure at 1368 West Jefferson Boulevard in 1938, after moving its headquarters to Los Angeles the year before.

For that hall, footnote 28 on p. 20 reads Koreatown Rotary Club, “Korean Independence Memorial Building,” City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument Application, December 5, 1990. The Family Home (HCM-1059) is where Helen Ahn moved the children in 1937 (p. 17).

The third building is the Catalina house. The application dates its acquisition to 1936 (p. 15), and the 1932 permit attached to the file names John P. Lem as its owner (p. 63).

The Commission’s adopted Findings separately say, on the criterion tied to Dosan himself, that the subject property is not directly associated with the productive period of his life.

The article the file attaches at page 70, of the same date, is headed “Angeleno Dies in Seoul Prison.” The application’s text and footnote quote the title as “Angeleno Dies in Seoul.” Footnote 11 gives no page.

The same clipping says his last visit to his family in Los Angeles was in 1925. The family’s chronology and both City pages (pp. 4, 17) give 1926. The article says the news reached Los Angeles by cable to the Korean National Association. It does not name the Hung Sa Dahn and does not mention a memorial service.

The application gives the title one way in its text and again in its footnote, while the page it attaches reads differently. This article does not rely on either wording for where he died.

The final staff report is final pp. 2 to 8 of the packet for the 4 November 2021 hearing. This is the staff recommendation for that hearing. The packet holds the recommendation and the papers before the Commission; the packet does not record what the Commission decided; the Commission’s letter and the Council papers, below, do.

The report asks the Commission to Declare the subject property an Historic-Cultural Monument (final p. 3). The report recommends designation on the first criterion only: the property exemplifies significant contributions to the broad cultural, economic or social history of the nation, state, city or community for its association with the Hung Sa Dahn (final p. 4). Its discussion says The subject property meets one of the Cultural Heritage Ordinance criteria (final p. 6).

The application argues two criteria: the first, and the second, the property’s association with Dosan (July p. 15; final p. 95). The final report accepts the first. On the second it says staff are unable to make this finding (final p. 7). It gives the reason in the same paragraph: the subject property is not directly associated with the productive period of his life and therefore does not meet this criterion. It also says Ahn rises to the level of an historic personage.

The same paragraph repeats the application’s premise. It says Ahn was imprisoned in Korea at the time Hung Sa Dahn acquired the property (final p. 7), and an earlier page of the report keeps its purchase in 1936 (final p. 6). The report gives no footnote or deed for the 1936 purchase. Exhibit 1 sets beside it The New Korea of 17 March 1938, which says Released in 1935 he was again imprisoned, July 1937.

The final report gives a different end date for the headquarters than the July report. The July report (p. 3) says the headquarters ran from 1936 to 1978. The final report says From 1936 to 1948 (final p. 4), and its own page 7 says Three years following Korea’s independence from Japan in 1945, the global headquarters for Hung Sa Dahn relocated to Seoul, South Korea. (final p. 7). The points that remain are set out in The file against itself.

The final packet contains an email from Philip “Flip” Ahn Cuddy, sent Monday, 13 September 2021, 12:22 PM PDT, subject “3421 Catalina YKA House HCM Application” (final pp. 68 to 71). It is printed as a forwarded message, addressed to staff of the Office of Historic Resources and copied to others.

In the packet it is Exhibit C to the letter of the owner’s lawyers, dated 12 October 2021: the packet lists that correspondence as Correspondence from Property Owner’s Representative, Received October 12, 2021 (final p. 3), and the lawyers’ letter cites the email with (See Exhibit C.) (final p. 56). It is not a document the City filed itself.

The email flags one caption. Its words are This glaring caption error about City Hall (final p. 68). Final p. 69 is a label page headed From the Application CHC-2021-5125-HCM (final p. 69). Final p. 70 is the memorial photograph with its caption highlighted and the note Does this look familiar? You approved the Church on USC Campus that is next to the Ahn Family house as City Hall (final p. 70).

That is the memorial caption of Exhibit 2. Final p. 71 is a photograph of another chamber, with no caption. The email does not mention the captions on pp. 39 and 40, or the 1936 date.

The final staff report (final pp. 2 to 8) does not repeat the City Hall claim. The City’s reply to the email is not part of the packet; Flip Ahn Cuddy’s copy is described below. The application in the packet is the one the Director of Planning found complete on 22 June 2021 (final p. 8), unchanged, so it carries what it carried in July.

Final p. 127, which is the application’s p. 47, reads Ahn Chang Ho Memorial Service at Los Angeles City Hall Council Chambers, 1938, 100 Years of the Young Korean Academy. The application’s text on final p. 97 says a memorial service was held in the Los Angeles City Hall Council Chambers, as on the July p. 17.

The p. 39 caption is on final p. 119 and reads Philson, Susan, and Soorah at Ahn Residence at 1411 W 4th St., 1909. Shades of L.A. Collection. The p. 40 photograph is on final p. 120. The embedded images of pp. 39, 40 and 47 are byte-for-byte the same as those on final pp. 119, 120 and 127.

The 1936 date is in the final report (final pp. 4, 6) and in the application. The lawyers’ letter cites the email in the part of its argument that opposes the nomination (final p. 56).

The City’s reply.

Ken Bernstein of the Office of Historic Resources replied to Flip the same evening, Monday, 13 September 2021, at 6:09 pm (Ken Bernstein, email to Flip Ahn Cuddy, 13 September 2021). He wrote that what would be most helpful was more specific written information, with citations.

He asked Flip to refrain from editorializing on the qualifications or motivations of other community participants and to focus on factual information that speaks directly to whether the property meets the criteria of the Cultural Heritage Ordinance.

He added: Once we receive your supplemental information, I will make sure that our staff reviews these points carefully, since we want all nominations proceeding to the Cultural Heritage Commission to be as accurate as possible. The reply is not part of the packet; we have it from Flip Ahn Cuddy’s own email records. The application in the final packet still carries the City Hall caption (final p. 127).

The same set of attachments also contains a letter from Philip Cuddy and Christine Cuddy, Exhibit B, which the lawyers’ letter dates 9 September 2021 (final pp. 56, 64 to 66). It states that it is submitted on our behalf in deep-rooted opposition to the proposed Historic Cultural Monument (HCM) nomination (final p. 65), and says We have volunteered, and the owners have accepted, our offer to work together to design and install such recognition. (final p. 66).

The owner’s lawyers describe the same offer in a section whose heading says the owner has volunteered to honor the history of Dosan and the Hungsadan with a plaque and tribute garden, with a conceptual design attached as Exhibit G (final pp. 58, 79, 80): Philip Cuddy, the grandson of Dosan, has volunteered to assist the owner in the design of the garden, and the substance of the plaque. (final p. 58).

On 4 November 2021 the Cultural Heritage Commission took the actions in its letter to include Hung Sa Dahn in the list of Historic-Cultural Monuments, subject to adoption by the City Council. Its letter to the Council, dated 16 November 2021, records the vote as 3 to 1: moved by Kennard, seconded by Milofsky, Barron aye, Kanner nay, Buelna absent. The Commission also adopted a set of Findings (Council file 21-1349).

The Findings rest on one criterion only. They state: The subject property meets one of the Cultural Heritage Ordinance criteria: it “exemplifies significant contributions to the broad cultural, economic or social history of the nation, state, city or community” for its association with the Korean American patriotic organization, Hung Sa Dahn, for which the property served as its first permanent headquarters, and for its role as an important social and cultural hub for the Los Angeles Korean American community. They decline the criterion tied to Dosan Ahn Chang Ho: staff are unable to make this finding, and the property is not directly associated with the productive period of his life.

The same Findings repeat the application’s claims. They say the house was the organization’s first permanent headquarters and that its purchase in 1936 marked the end of a nomadic period. They also say Ahn was imprisoned in Korea at the time Hung Sa Dahn acquired the property. These are the same statements this article examines above.

On 21 February 2023 the Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee recommended approving the designation. Its recommendation 3 reads ADOPT the FINDINGS of the Cultural Heritage Commission (CHC) as the Findings of Council. The vote as listed: Harris-Dawson, Rodriguez, Yaroslavsky and Hutt yes; Lee absent.

The PLUM report says the Committee recommended to approve the inclusion of Hung Sa Dahn in the list of Historic-Cultural Monuments.

On 28 February 2023 the City Council adopted the PLUM report; its Council Action reads ADOPTED. The effect was that the Commission and then the Council approved the inclusion of Hung Sa Dahn in the list of Historic-Cultural Monuments. The Official Action lists 11 yes votes, none recorded as no, and 3 members absent: Hutt, Park and Price Jr. So the findings the Council adopted say the house is not directly associated with the productive period of Dosan’s life, and they still carry the 1936 purchase date and the statement that he was imprisoned at the time. The Council voted on the PLUM report as a whole; the papers record no separate vote on any finding.

The application has two runs of photographs. Pages 26 to 35 are headed Current Photographs and pages 36 to 61 Historical Photographs. The nine current photographs (pp. 27 to 35) show the house and duplex from several sides, including the porch and the rear. Each caption names the building and the view and nothing else: no photographer, owner or date. Eight of the nine (pp. 28 to 35) carry a small CRMLS mark in a lower corner.

The historical run is 25 pages (pp. 37 to 61). By the credit printed in each caption, ten are from the Hung Sa Dahn’s 2013 book (pp. 37, 38, 41, 43 and 46 to 51), two are from a second centennial book published by the Young Korean Academy in America, Strengthen Your Power (pp. 44, 45), eleven are from the USC Korean American Digital Archive (p. 42 and pp. 52 to 61) and two (pp. 39, 40) are credited only to the Shades of L.A. Collection. Twelve of the 25 pages therefore come from books published by the Hung Sa Dahn or the Young Korean Academy in America.

Four captions in this run are wrong or incomplete. Page 45 calls a print date unknown that has its own title lettered across its face (below). Page 39 names children who were not yet born at the date it gives. Flip Ahn Cuddy says page 40, which names Helen Ahn, shows another Korean family; that one rests on his statement.

Page 47 places a memorial service in City Hall when a notice (17 March) and the English page of the 24 March issue say church. Two of the four come from the library collection, one from the organization’s own book and one from Strengthen Your Power, and none gives a photographer, a donor or a document.

A Los Angeles Times article of 7 October 1992 on the Shades of L.A. project, headed Faded Photographs Help Tell Story of L.A.’s Ethnic Diversity, is attached at page 73, and no footnote cites it. It describes families bringing their own snapshots to be copied, and Susan Ahn appears in it. The application does not say whether the photographs on pages 39 and 40 came from that event.

Three of the historical photographs are captioned without a date. The captions on pages 44 and 45 say date unknown, and the one on page 51 reads 3421 South Catalina Street, date unknown. That is the only historical photograph in the application captioned with the Catalina address, and it has no date and no photographer. Page 37, a portrait of Dosan, is dated c. 1919. Page 49, one of three spreads of member portraits from the 2013 book, is captioned 1914-20113 [sic], which is not a year.

The page 45 print is lettered on its face The Eleventh General Assembly of Young Korean Academy and, on a second line, Los Angeles, with a date beside it that the City’s scan is too blurry to read. Flip Ahn Cuddy pointed this out to the City on 13 September 2021.

He counts the eleventh assembly from the 1913 founding as 1924, and he names his mother Susan, his aunt Soorah and his grandmother Helen Ahn among the group. The photograph is a street scene in front of a commercial building, not the Catalina house.

Pages 52 to 61 are annual meeting photographs credited to the USC archive, 1932 to 1961. None of the ten captions names a place. The 1932 photograph (p. 52) shows a group seated and standing before a building with arched openings and columns, which does not look like the house on page 51.

The print on p. 56 is indoors and marked on its face Y.K.A., 12-18-49, Los Angeles, California. The prints of 1937, 1940 and 1943 (pp. 53 to 55), on Flip Ahn Cuddy’s count, show no Ahns, and he says Helen Ahn is at the 1947 meeting and that he has a photograph of her at a 1949 Christmas party.

The ordinal in each caption does not always match its year (see the paperwork table below). The 1937 print (p. 53) shows a group before a gabled porch like the ones in the 1940 and 1943 prints; no caption names the place, so the photographs do not settle the 1936 question either way.

Pages 42 and 43 carry the same caption, Hung Sa Dahn Headquarters at Ahn Residence at 106 North Figueroa Street, 1918, with two different credits: the USC archive and the 2013 book. The application’s own photographs put the organization’s headquarters at the Ahn residence on Figueroa in 1918, eighteen years before the date the application gives for the Catalina purchase.

Only dates that can be cited on each side.

Each sits between two pages of the City file.

Headquarters to 1978, or to 1948.

In the July report page 3 says From 1936 to 1978, the subject property served as the headquarters of the Young Korean Academy, without saying of what. The final report says From 1936 to 1948, the subject property served as the headquarters of the Young Korean Academy (final p. 4).

That matches its own sentence on page 7 that Three years following Korea’s independence from Japan in 1945, the global headquarters for Hung Sa Dahn relocated to Seoul, South Korea. (final p. 7). The final report still dates the property’s use as a community hub, and the organization’s departure from the building, to 1978: the property functioned as a long-standing civic, social, and cultural hub in the Korean American community until 1978 (final p. 6), and the building does not appear to have changed since 1978, when Hung Sa Dahn left (final p. 7).

The application, which the packet re-attaches unchanged, says only that the headquarters ran from 1936 to 1978 (July p. 15; final p. 95). Page 22 says that after 1945 Hung Sa Dahn’s global headquarters was moved from Los Angeles to Seoul. Page 4 says the site is significant as the Los Angeles branch of the Korean American patriotic youth organization. Dr. Cha’s memoir calls it the “U.S. headquarters” (p. 81).

Dosan’s “absences.”

Page 4 says During Ahn’s frequent absences, the organization continued to operate and expand at the subject property. The file dates his last departure to 1926 (pp. 4, 17) and the property’s acquisition to 1936 (p. 15). On the file’s own dates he had left Los Angeles ten years before the property was bought.

The Ahn home.

Page 39 puts the family at 1411 W 4th St. in 1909, five years before the application says they came to Los Angeles (p. 17). Page 21 puts them at 106 North Figueroa Street by 1917.

The preparers had no access to the site and say so: No physical description or current photographs of the interior are provided in this application due to the nomination preparer’s lack of access to the site. (pp. 12, 13). The application also admits what it does not know. Dosan could not see the acquisition (p. 17), and how the house was chosen and bought is unknown (p. 21).

It says the Hung Sa Dahn was founded in San Francisco in 1913 (pp. 15, 17, 21), and Dr. Cha’s memoir confirms it was founded at a Kang residence in San Francisco (p. 82). It records that the Ahn Family Home was moved to USC in 2004 and is Historic-Cultural Monument No. 1059 (p. 18). The 1958 permit names the Hung Sa Dahn as owner of 3421 S. Catalina (p. 64), and it is the earliest document in the file to do so.

Dr. Cha’s memoir, the earliest eyewitness account in the file (Fall 1959, p. 80), says The up stair rooms were rented out to students at a nominal rent. The application also places The New Korea at the Association hall, not at this house: The Korean-language newspaper The New Korea, with a political bent, was published on site. (p. 20)