Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption (San Francisco)

Last updated
Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption
St Mary's Cathedral - San Francisco.jpg
Cathedral from the DePaul Campus of the Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory
USA California location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location in California
37°47′03″N122°25′32″W / 37.7842°N 122.4255°W / 37.7842; -122.4255
Location1111 Gough St.
San Francisco, California, 94109
Country United States
Denomination Roman Catholic
Website www.smcsf.org
History
Founded1891
Dedication October 5, 1996
Architecture
Architect(s) Pier Luigi Nervi, Pietro Belluschi, John Michael Lee, Paul A. Ryan and Angus McSweeney
Style Structural Expressionist Modern
Groundbreaking 1967
Completed1971
Specifications
Capacity2,400 seats
Administration
Diocese Archdiocese of San Francisco
Clergy
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone
Rector Kevin Kennedy

The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, also known locally as Saint Mary's Cathedral, is the principal church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco in San Francisco, California. It is the mother church of the Catholic faithful in the California counties of Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo and is the metropolitan cathedral for the Ecclesiastical province of San Francisco.

Contents

The cathedral is located in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. The present cathedral replaced one (1891–1962) of the same name. The original Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception was built in 1853–1854 and still stands today. It is now known as Old Saint Mary's Cathedral.

Second cathedral

The 1891 cathedral St-marys-exterior.jpg
The 1891 cathedral

In 1883, Archbishop Patrick W. Riordan purchased the northwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and O'Farrell Street in Western Addition. Riordan broke ground in December 1885. On May 1, 1887, the archbishop placed the cornerstone. Archbishop Riordan dedicated the edifice to Saint Mary of the Assumption on January 11, 1891. The second cathedral served the Archdiocese of San Francisco for seventy-one years. During the episcopal terms of archbishops Riordan, Edward J. Hanna and John J. Mitty. Papal Secretary of State Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, (future Pope Pius XII) said Mass at the high altar in October 1936. On April 3, 1962, Joseph T. McGucken was installed as the fifth Archbishop of San Francisco in the cathedral on Van Ness Avenue. Five months later the landmark was destroyed by arson on the night of September 7, 1962. [1]

Rectors of the cathedral from 1891 to present

New cathedral: 1971

The present cathedral was commissioned just as Vatican II was convening in Rome. Monsignor Thomas J. Bowe served as first rector of the new cathedral from 1962 to 1980. The cornerstone was laid on December 13, 1967, and the cathedral was completed three years later. On May 5, 1971, the cathedral was blessed and on October 5, 1996, was formally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the name of Saint Mary of the Assumption. The first Papal Mass was celebrated by Pope John Paul II in the cathedral in 1987.

It ran the private all-female Cathedral High School, in a building adjoined to the present-day cathedral itself. CHS merged with nearby all-male private Sacred Heart High School in 1987. St. Mary's Cathedral still has close ties to the resulting Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, which uses the cathedral as its principal church for masses and other special events, such as graduation. Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo also uses the cathedral to hold graduation.

Design

The 1971 cathedral was designed by local architects John Michael Lee, Paul A. Ryan and Angus McSweeney, [3] collaborating with internationally known architects Pier Luigi Nervi and Pietro Belluschi, then the Dean of the School of Architecture at MIT. Precast concrete work, which is the entire top portion of the building, was constructed by Terracon and the DiRegolo Family of Hayward, CA.

Measuring 255 feet (78 m) square, the cathedral soars to 190 feet (58 m) high and is crowned with a 55 feet (17 m) golden cross. [4] Its saddle roof is composed of eight segments of hyperbolic paraboloids, in such a fashion that the bottom horizontal cross section of the roof is a square and the top cross section is a cross.

The design process was controversial. A preliminary design reminded one critic of "the effort of a camel and donkey to mate." After adding Belluschi and Nervi to the team, the situation improved, though the architects were then accused of plagiarizing the design of the St. Mary's Cathedral in Tokyo that was completed several years earlier. The modern design was not loved by San Francisco's Catholics who had previously worshipped in traditional churches. [5] The church is commonly known as Our Lady of Maytag, because the roof (designed to look like a conquistador's helmet) resembles a washing machine agitator.

The building was selected in 2007 by the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects for a list of San Francisco's top 25 buildings. [6] In 2017, Architecture Digest named it one of the 10 most beautiful churches in the United States. [7]

Interior photos

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco</span> Latin Church ecclesiastical territory of the Catholic Church in northern California

The Archdiocese of San Francisco is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the northern California region of the United States. The Archdiocese of San Francisco was erected on July 29, 1853, by Pope Pius IX and its cathedral is the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pietro Belluschi</span> American architect

Pietro Belluschi was an Italian-American architect. A leading figure in modern architecture, he was responsible for the design of over 1,000 buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary</span> Historic church in Maryland, United States

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also called the Baltimore Basilica, is a Catholic cathedral in Baltimore, Maryland. It was the first Catholic cathedral built in the United States after the nation's founding, and was among the first major religious buildings constructed therein after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pier Luigi Nervi</span> Italian architect and engineer

Pier Luigi Nervi was an Italian engineer and architect. He studied at the University of Bologna graduating in 1913. Nervi taught as a professor of engineering at Rome University from 1946 to 1961 and is known worldwide as a structural engineer and architect and for his innovative use of reinforced concrete, especially with numerous notable thin shell structures worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cathedral of Saint Francis de Sales (Oakland, California)</span> Church in California, United States

Cathedral of Saint Francis de Sales in Oakland was an 1893 church, which served as the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland in Oakland, California, from 1962 until it was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston–Houston</span> Latin Catholic ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Texas, USA

The Archdiocese of Galveston–Houston is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction—an archdiocese—of the Catholic Church in the United States. The archdiocese covers a portion of Southeast Texas, and is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province covering east-Texas. The archdiocese was erected in 2004, having been a diocese since 1959 and the "Diocese of Galveston" since 1847. It is the second metropolitan see in Texas after the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul (Philadelphia)</span> Historic church in Pennsylvania, United States

The Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, head church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, is located at 18th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, on the east side of Logan Square in Philadelphia. It was built between 1846 and 1864, and was designed by Napoleon LeBrun, from original plans by the Reverend Mariano Muller and the Reverend John B. Tornatore, with the dome and Palladian facade, designed by John Notman, added after 1850. The interior was largely decorated by Constantino Brumidi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick William Riordan</span> Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco, California

Patrick William Riordan was a Canadian-born American prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of San Francisco from 1884 until his death in 1914. He served during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and he was a prominent figure in the first case submitted to the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh (Catholic)</span> Church in Edinburgh, Scotland

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, also known as St Mary's Metropolitan Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic church in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh and the mother church of Scots Catholicism. The cathedral church is located at the East End of New Town in the city center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Keely</span> Irish-American architect

Patrick Charles Keely was an Irish-American architect based in Brooklyn, New York, and Providence, Rhode Island. He was a prolific designer of nearly 600 churches and hundreds of other institutional buildings for the Roman Catholic Church or Roman Catholic patrons in the eastern United States and Canada, particularly in New York City, Boston and Chicago in the later half of the 19th century. He designed every 19th-century Catholic cathedral in New England. Several other church and institutional architects began their careers in his firm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart (Houston)</span> Church in Texas, United States

The Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart is a place of worship located at 1111 St. Joseph Parkway in downtown Houston. The co-cathedral seats 1,820 people in its 32,000-square-foot (3,000 m2) sanctuary. Together with the venerable St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica in Galveston, Sacred Heart serves more than 1.2 million Roman Catholics in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Perth</span> Catholic ecclesiastical territory

The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Perth is a Latin Church metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Australia covering the Greater Perth, Goldfields-Esperance, Peel and Wheatbelt regions of Western Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Joseph Mitty</span> American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church

John Joseph Mitty was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the third Bishop of Salt Lake City (1926–1932) and the fourth Archbishop of San Francisco (1935–1961).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old St. Mary's Cathedral</span> Historic church in California, United States

The Old Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception is a proto-cathedral and parish of the Roman Catholic Church located at 660 California Street at the corner of Grant Avenue in the Chinatown neighborhood of San Francisco, California. It was built in 1854 in the Gothic Revival style, and was made a Designated San Francisco Landmark on April 11, 1968.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Thomas McGucken</span> American prelate

Joseph Thomas McGucken was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (1941–1955), coadjutor bishop and bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento (1955–1962) and archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco (1962–1977).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basilica of St. Joseph, Alameda</span> Historic church in California, United States

The Basilica of St. Joseph is a Roman Catholic church located in Alameda, California. Its history dates back to early settlement of the City of Alameda, California. A former mission church of St. Anthony's in Oakland, the parish of St. Joseph's was established in 1885. It is part of the Diocese of Oakland. The Basilica was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 18, 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawrence Scanlan</span> Irish Catholic missionary

Lawrence Scanlan was an Irish-born American prelate of the Catholic Church. A missionary and pioneer bishop, he served as the first Bishop of Salt Lake from 1891 until his death in 1915.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James J. Egan</span> American architect

James J. Egan, FAIA, was an Irish-American architect and fellow of the American Institute of Architects practicing in Chicago, Illinois. He was a partner of the Chicago architectural firms Armstrong & Egan, Egan & Kirkland and Egan & Prindeville, which gained prominence designing Roman Catholic structures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Saint Petersburg)</span>

Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was a Catholic cathedral in the city of St. Petersburg from 1873 to 1926 and the residence of Metropolitan of Mogilev, the head of the Catholic Church in the Russian Empire. Administratively it belongs to the North-West region Catholic Archdiocese of Moscow, led by Archbishop Metropolitan Paolo Pezzi. Cathedral is closed to the building from the street, which is Russia's only Catholic seminary Mary Queen of the Apostles.

References

  1. "History of St. Mary's Cathedral". Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  2. Catholic Directory Archdiocese of San Francisco
  3. "St. Mary's Cathedral". Archdiocese of San Francisco Web Page. 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-05-12.
  4. "Building of the month: Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, San Francisco". The Twentieth Century Society. 2017-03-01.
  5. "A Modern Cathedral Celebrates 45 Years". The New Fillmore. 2015-05-01.
  6. "Gems of the city: A list of S.F.'s top 25". SFGate. 2007-04-17.
  7. "Church of Mary of the Assumption named one of nation's prettiest churches". Curbed SF. 2017-02-07.