Old Saint Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco
| Old Saint Mary's Cathedral | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Basic information | |
| Location |
660 California Street San Francisco, California |
| Geographic coordinates | 37°47′34″N 122°24′21″W / 37.79265°N 122.40575°WCoordinates: 37°47′34″N 122°24′21″W / 37.79265°N 122.40575°W |
| Affiliation | Roman Catholic Church |
| Province | Archdiocese of San Francisco |
| Ecclesiastical or organizational status | Proto-cathedral; parish |
| Leadership | Archbishop of San Francisco, Paulist Fathers |
| Website | www.oldsaintmarys.org |
| Direction of façade | South |
| Reference no. | 810 |
| Reference no. | 2 |
Old Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception is a proto-cathedral and parish of the Roman Catholic Church in San Francisco, California. The cathedral is located on the corner of Grant Avenue and California Street. The church is named for Mary, the Mother of Jesus, under the title of the Immaculate Conception.
Old Saint Mary's cornerstone was placed on Sunday, July 17, 1853 at the corner of California and Dupont Streets by the Bishop of Monterrey Joseph S. Alemany. With its dedication by Alemany, now as the new Archbishop of San Francisco, at Christmas Midnight Mass, 1854, it became the first cathedral of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. It is the first cathedral in California to be built for the express purpose of serving as a cathedral, although other churches in the state served as cathedrals before it was built. When it opened, it was the tallest building in San Francisco and all of California.
It was used from 1854 to 1891 as a cathedral and was replaced by the first Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, as the archdiocese was in need of a larger space for the growing number of Catholics in the area. In 1891, Old Saint Mary's became a parish church, still using the same name that it bore as a cathedral. The new St. Mary's Cathedral was located at Van Ness Avenue and O'Farrell Street.
Under the clock face of Old St. Mary's appear the words: "Son, Observe the Time and Fly from Evil" (Ecclesiasticus 4:23). This sentiment was aimed at the men who frequented the surrounding brothels in the 1850s.
It was across the street from Old St. Mary's, at the southeast corner of California and Dupont Streets (the latter being the current Grant Avenue), that Emperor Norton collapsed in 1880, on his way to a lecture at the California Academy of Sciences.
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