Gurdwara Sahib Stockton

Gurdwara Sahib Stockton, run by the Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society, is described by the UC Davis Punjabi diaspora archive as the first Sikh house of worship established in the United States. California's Senate resolution of 2012 says Teja Singh of the Society founded it on 24 October 1912, with Baba Jawala Singh and Baba Wasakha Singh as its founding granthis.

How it grew: The UC Davis archive places the first Sikh congregational prayer in the country on 1 November 1911, at Nand Singh's camp near Stockton. The Society was formed with Sant Teja Singh as its first president. A wooden building on Grant Street was finished in 1915, and a brick building was added in 1929. Jawala Singh, known as the "Potato King", was the first granthi and the Ghadar Party's first vice president.

Its part in this history

• Scholarships: the founders started the Sri Guru Govind Singh Educational Scholarships, and in 1912 Jawala Singh funded scholarships for students from India to attend the University of California, Berkeley.
• Ghadar: the Senate resolution says the newspaper The Ghadar was published with the gurdwara's financial support. The UC Davis archive says the gurdwara became the centre of Ghadar Party activity. In 1914 Jawala Singh helped recruit Punjabi farmworkers in California to return to India to fight British rule, and he and Wasakha Singh eventually gave their farm to the party. The University of California, Berkeley library guide says that after the 1917 trials the temple became a centre of Ghadar activity, with a Ghadar meeting on the second day of its three-day gatherings.
• A community centre: before 1947 it served Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus, and Dalip Singh Saund, the first Asian American in the US Congress, was its secretary (UC Davis).

Where it stands today: The gurdwara is at 1930 Sikh Temple Street in Stockton, calls itself the first gurdwara in the United States, keeps its langar hall open to people of any background, and holds a Vaisakhi nagar kirtan every April. The UC Davis archive says the Ghadar press is kept there and calls the temple a historical landmark of California.