660 California St.
(at Grant)
(415) 288-3840
Towering over the corner of Grant Avenue and California
Street is Old St. Mary's Cathedral, the first cathedral built in
California. Just a block and a half from the Chinatown Gate, Old St.
Mary's also hosts a popular series of lunchtime classical
chamber music concerts Tuesdays and Thursdays. At the time of the church's construction in 1853, San
Francisco was struggling through the tail end of the Gold Rush.
Many of the gold strikes were unsuccessful and the city went
from boom to bust: businesses went bankrupt, unemployment rose
and the city's first depression set in.
But it was also a time of spiritual activism; various
churches, temples and synagogues saw the need to provide an
alternative to the brothels, pool halls and other Gold Rush
entertainments, and pushed to create well as centers of
education, social and civic activity.
Old St. Mary's was designed by architects William Craine and
Thomas England, who followed the instructions of the church's
Bishop, Joseph Sadoc Alemany, to replicate a cathedral in his
hometown of Vich, Spain. The new cathedral, built mostly with
Chinese labor, had parapets on either flank, surmounted with
embrasures, and buttresses finished cut-stone pinnacles. Inside,
a vaulted ceiling with groin arches rises above a Carrara marble
altar imported from Rome.
The original plan included a steeple, but fear that an
earthquake would send it toppling into the street led the
designers to change the plans, leaving only a bell tower.
Granite, quarried in China, was used around the base of the
structure to deflect rainwater, while bricks minted in New
England for the outer walls came around Cape Horn as ship
ballast.
In keeping with its tradition of community involvement, the
church is home to several Twelve-Step groups and a vibrant gay
and lesbian ministry, and holds a regular "Saturday for
Engaged Couples," a one-day, all day series of
presentations focusing the engaged couples' attention on the
meaning of marriage from a Roman Catholic perspective. As a part
of its "Music Ministry," the St. Mary's church choir
sings Sundays at the 11 a.m. service and Saturdays at a
liturgical service at 5 p.m.
Hours:
Tuesday and Thursday concerts start at 12:30 p.m.
Admission/fees:
Suggested donation $3
