Pui Tak Center in Chicago Chinatown

Pui Tak Center belongs to the Chinese Christian Union Church. It was established to be a Christian witness to Chinese in Chicago through educational, family and community services in 1994.

Building Pui Tak Center itself is a historic place in Chicago Chinatown; it is located on the address 2216 S Wentworth Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. On December 1993 it was designated a landmark by the Commission of Chicago Landmarks.

The building was constructed from 1926 to 1928. The architects for this project were Christian S. Michaelsen and Sigurd A. Rognstad. Some sources claim that its Oriental-style design was derived from the architecture of the Kwangtung district of China, the ancestral region of many of Chinatown's early residents. On the other hand, other sources deny this information and consider the style of the building more “orientalizing” than really oriental. According to them, architects did not include many pure Chinese structural concepts or decorations.

Originally, Pui Tak Center was built for the On Leong Merchants Association, as its second South Side headquarters. In 1992 was the building of Pui Tak Center seized by the government during a prosecution for gambling and it was sold to the Chinese Christian Union Church that did not change the exterior, however, made huge changes inside.

There are several programs connected with the Chinese Christian Union Church and Pui Tak Center. They target the needs of new Chinese immigrants who have limited English skills and are low-income. It offers ESL classes and tutoring for adults, children and youth programs, services for new immigrants, family literacy, school (preschool through sixth grade), music program and computer center. Services on Sundays are held in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin languages. Chinese Christian Union Church has fellowship groups and small groups all around Chicago.