Old St. Mary’s Church[1] is located at the corner of California and Grant, straddling ChinaTown[2] and the Financial District[3]. It served as the first cathedral for the newly established Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco. When it opened it was the City’s tallest building, with much of its stonework coming from China. Under the clock tower is a black painted sandstone plaque that reads, “Son, observe the Time and Fly From Evil”. The church was built at the center of the Barbary Coast[4], surrounded by over 100 brothels, opium dens and dance halls. Archbishop Alemany was quoted as saying, “[the church] can scarcely be approached from any direction without a shudder at the sinfulness and filth of its surroundings.”
St. Mary’s survived the 1906 Earthquake and Fires[5], only to be gutted by fire the next day. The church bells melted and the marble alter was unsalvageable. Renovation of the church was completed in 1909 with an additional auditorium, library and lecture room.
St. Mary’s served as the seat of the Archdiocese of San Francisco from 1855-1891, when a new St. Mary’s Cathedral was built at Van Ness and O’Farrell. When this new cathedral burned down in 1962, it relocated to its current location at 1111 Gough Street on Cathedral Hill in 1996. Old St. Mary’s was converted to a parish church, serving ChinaTown and Nob Hill. Once the tallest building in California at 90 feet, it isn’t even the tallest building on the block.
[1] Visit them at www.oldSaintMarys.org
[2] ChinaTown: story coming October 18th [3] Financial District: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4109 [4] Barbary Coast: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3823 [5] 1906 earthquake: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=2849
