660 California Street, San Francisco, California, USA
Old Saint Mary's Cathedral
The first Catholic cathedral in California, built in 1854 during the Gold Rush using granite shipped from China and bricks from New England, still standing at the edge of San Francisco's Chinatown.
They built this church in a boomtown. San Francisco in 1854 was a collection of tents, saloons, and mud streets full of men who had come for gold, and the Catholics among them — mostly Irish immigrants — put up a cathedral made of granite blocks quarried in China and bricks shipped around Cape Horn from the East Coast. Local materials were either too expensive or too flimsy for what they wanted to build. The result was the first cathedral in California, a Gothic Revival building that has survived fires, earthquakes, and the complete transformation of the neighborhood around it from a red-light district into Chinatown. The 1906 earthquake and fire gutted the interior but the granite walls held, and the church was rebuilt within. A clock on the tower still carries the inscription that was there in the 1850s: 'Son, observe the time and fly from evil' — a pointed message to the patrons of the brothels that used to line the street below. The cathedral function moved to a new building in 1891, but Old St. Mary's continued as a parish church and is run today by the Paulist Fathers. Noontime concerts on Tuesdays feature classical music and draw office workers from the Financial District next door.
Diocese: Archdiocese of San Francisco
Style: Gothic Revival
What to See
The exterior tells most of the story — look at the granite blocks and consider that they were cut in China, loaded onto sailing ships, and reassembled on a hill in California. The clock tower inscription is visible from the street and has been there since the building opened. Inside, the church is modest compared to later San Francisco churches — the 1906 fire destroyed the original interior and the rebuilt version is simpler. The stained-glass windows are post-fire replacements and decent but not extraordinary. The real value is in the atmosphere and the history. The church sits right at the entrance to Chinatown, at the corner of California Street and Grant Avenue, and the juxtaposition of a Gold Rush-era Catholic cathedral with the Dragon Gate of Chinatown is pure San Francisco.
Pilgrim Notes
Old St. Mary's is at California and Grant in the Financial District, at the edge of Chinatown. The California Street cable car stops right outside. It is open daily and free to enter. Mass is offered daily by the Paulist Fathers. The Tuesday noontime concert series is free and lasts about thirty minutes — a good reason to visit midweek. The church is small and visits take about twenty minutes unless you stay for a concert or Mass. Combine it with a walk through Chinatown or down to the Embarcadero. For a fuller picture of San Francisco's Catholic history, visit Mission Dolores in the Mission District, about thirty minutes south by Muni.