[1] The five challenged the accepted history that excluded the contribution of Chinese immigrants to building California and the West Coast.

[2] Until 1966, CHSA held meetings in different peoples' homes, when the Shoong Foundation "donated" (rented at a low cost) a small space in a building that the foundation owned at 17 Adler Place[3] (Off 1140 Grant Avenue) (now Jack Kerouac Alley, San Francisco, CA 94133) to function as a museum, and a first permanent headquarters.

[1] Noted architect Julia Morgan was contracted to design the now-historic building, and after consultation with Chinese-Americans, included cultural elements from Chinese arts and crafts.

[7] The CHSA Museum features the set of twelve Gum Shan (金山) paintings by Jake Lee which were originally commissioned for a private dining room in Johnny Kan's eponymous restaurant, which opened in 1959.

[8][9] The museum also has on permanent display the large mural One Hundred Years: History of the Chinese in America by James Leong, commissioned for the Ping Yuen Housing Project in the early 1950s.