In 1854 five nuns from Sisters of the Presentation in Ireland made the arduous journey to San Francisco via New York and through Panama. Their mission was to open schools and minister to the poor. But San Francisco in the mid-1850s was overrun by crime and vice and within a year three of the five nuns returned to Ireland. The remaining two established the Presentation Convent on Powell and Lombard where they opened a school for girls. My greatgrandmother, Annie Keenan Matlock[1], and her sisters attended Presentation Academy. A second convent was opened in 1869 at Taylor and Ellis. The 1906 Earthquake and Fires[2] destroyed both convents and the nuns lived in various residences until a new Presentation Convent and school at 281 Masonic was completed in 1912. The nuns would eventually live at the Motherhouse at 2340 Turk in 1970. Sisters of the Presentation were responsible for opening and running many schools throughout San Francisco, including St. Anne School, part of St. Anne of the Sunset Catholic Church.
St. Anne of the Sunset is one of four Catholic churches in the Sunset District located at 850 Judah. Founded in 1905, the first church was a small wood-framed structure. It was completely destroyed in the earthquake the following year but was rebuilt and reopened in 1908. In 1920 the church was expanded and St. Anne School opened. As more families moved to the area, construction of a new church began in 1930 at the same site and was completed three years later. St. Anne of the Sunset is arguably one of the more beautiful churches in the City: it has a massive dome, asymmetrical towers, rose windows and a frieze sculpture at the front entrance.
My mother, Anne Filmer Gasparich Wright, attended St. Anne School during World War II[3]. The old church on Irving was converted into classrooms for grades 6-8. Between the old church and the new there was a large concrete elementary school where the girls were taught on one side and the boys on the other. There was also a convent, built for the nuns in 1924. There were so many students that Irving Street was blocked off and used as a playground. My grandmother, Florence Matlock Filmer, knit sweaters and bed jackets for the nuns who lived onsight, and twice a month she volunteered to cook lunch for the students. The PE teacher, an old man, lined the students up along Irving Street and taught them how to march. By 2004 the Sisters of the Presentations were no longer running the school, though it still exists[4].
Over the years the congregation changed from predominantly Irish-Catholics to include Filipino, Chinese-American and LatinX parishioners. Today, masses are offered in multiple languages[5]. The church was painted pink in 1974, making it an easy-to-spot landmark. It was visited by Pope John Paul II in 1987 and Mother Teresa the following year.
[2] 1906 Earthquake and Fires: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=2849
[3] World War II: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4222
[4] Visit them at https://stanne.com
[5] Visit them at www.stanne-sf.org
