'Demolition Threat' Old LA Heungsadan Building Protected by Veterans Affairs Office

Purchase of Real Estate to Preserve Independence Movement Historic Sites
Base for Korean Independence Movement in America... Opening on Liberation Day 2025

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hee-jun] The government has purchased the former headquarters building of Heungsadan in Los Angeles (LA), USA, which was facing the threat of disappearance due to real estate development. This was to prevent the demolition of the building and preserve it as a historic site of the independence movement.

The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs announced on the 2nd that it finalized the purchase contract on the 31st of last month (local time) to preserve the former headquarters building of Heungsadan, which was a base for the Korean independence movement in the Americas during the Japanese colonial period. This is the first time the Ministry has purchased real estate to preserve overseas independence movement historic sites.

The former headquarters building of Heungsadan on Catalina Street in LA
[Photo by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs]

Heungsadan was an organization founded by Dosan Ahn Chang-ho on May 13, 1913, in San Francisco, and it spread throughout the Americas by establishing a Chicago branch in December of the same year. In 1915, Heungsadan moved from San Francisco to LA, renting a two-story wooden building at 106 North Figueroa Street, which it used for 14 years before relocating in 1929 to the building on Catalina Street in LA, which the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs has now purchased.

The site of the building on North Figueroa Street is now occupied by condominiums, making it difficult to find traces of the original location. The building on Catalina Street is a wooden house built in the then-popular Craftsman Style and was called 'Danso (團所),' meaning the Heungsadan headquarters. In 1932, the members raised funds to acquire ownership of the building.

Danso served as the Heungsadan headquarters from 1929 to 1948, and after the main base moved to Seoul following Korea’s liberation, it was used until 1979 as a place supporting Korean education and rights protection in the United States. Later, elderly members sold Danso in 1979 due to financial difficulties, and it was subsequently used as rental housing. Recently, a local real estate development company purchased it in 2020, and demolition procedures began the following year, putting the building at risk of disappearance.

The 24th Annual Conference of Heungsadan, photographed in front of the old Heungsadan headquarters on December 26, 1937 [Photo provided by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs]

A committee to protect the building was formed, led by local LA independence movement-related organizations such as Heungsadan, the Dosan Ahn Chang-ho Memorial Project, and the Korean National Association Memorial Foundation. Organizations including the LA management group and the Asian Pacific Islander American Historical Preservation Association (APIAHP) also supported the effort, and by applying for the building to be designated as an LA historical and cultural monument, they helped temporarily halt the demolition.

However, without a secured plan to fully preserve the building, a real estate company proposed to purchase the building from the LA Heungsadan branch in May last year. After negotiations led by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, the purchase was completed. The Ministry plans to carry out stabilization work on the building and conduct a detailed architectural survey within this year. Once a utilization plan is established, it is scheduled to open in time for Liberation Day in the first half of 2025.

Park Min-sik, head of the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, said, "The former Heungsadan headquarters building will be specialized as a living history, culture, and education institution and a place of communication, enjoyed not only by the 600,000 overseas Koreans in Southern California but also by local residents." He added, "It will also be used as a base institution for independence movement historic sites in the Americas."