Windrush School's sometimes mysterious architectural details hint at its past to when it was a home for Chinese boys. In 1923, Charles Shepherd -a Cantonese-speaking Baptist minister from England- founded the Chung Mei Home to help orphaned and abandoned Chinese boys. Laws forbade interracial adoption, which prohibited many willing couples from adopting such children. Consequently, these children were relegated to San Francisco's historic Chinese ghetto, now known as Chinatown.

For 30 years, Shepherd, known as "Captain," helped raise 800 boys from ages five to 18. Chung Mei Home gave boys clothing, two hot meals a day and moral guidance. They attended public school.

Originally founded in Berkeley, the home moved to Windrush's current site in 1934 to accommodate the Bay Bridge and the freeway. The new El Cerrito home was built on dairy farmland.

Chung Mei boys felt a similar magic to what people feel on Windrush School's campus today.

"The new home, with its cheerfulness and artisticness, its beautiful surroundings and its dignity, has given our boys a greater self-respect, a higher morale and a more purposeful outlook on life,"  Shepherd wrote in his book The Story of Chung Mei.

Shepherd wrote The Story of Chung Mei  in 1938, which marked the home's 15th anniversary. In the book, he described the experience as "thrilling" and "always intensely interesting" while noting that Chung Mei had become nationally and internationally known as "outstanding" and "unique."

Shepherd closed Chung Mei in 1954, but continued preaching in Chinatown churches until he died in 1964. Chung Mei alumni have returned to visit their home site and in 2001 held a reminiscent gathering at Windrush along with alumni from the Ming Quong Home for Chinese girls. The California Heritage Council recognized Windrush in 2001 for its preservation of the Chung Mei Home.

Though time has transformed Chung Mei into what is now Windrush, people share similar sentiments about each place. They could have been speaking about Windrush when they called the Chinese boys' home cheerful and beautiful.