Worth the wait: Grace Cathedral’s early days and biggest moments - San Francisco Chronicle

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Grace Cathedral atop Nob Hill may look like a church that has been around for centuries, but it was completed only in 1964.

A search through The Chronicle’s archives for older photos of the one of the city’s landmark churches turned up images of its construction and photos from its most well-attended moments.

The current building is a replacement for another Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire. Banker William H. Crocker donated the land where the family’s mansion — itself severely damaged by the earthquake — had stood.

The cornerstone was laid on Jan. 24, 1910, with a grand ceremony involving four bishops, the governor and the combined choirs of a dozen Bay Area Episcopal churches. “A great city is spread before it, a great city lies below it, and it will play an important part in the moral growth of the city and state,” Gov. James Gillett said.

Two years later, the first services were held in the completed portion of the church’s crypt, as its underground room was called, but it would be five decades before the church was formally completed.

In November 1927, prominent businessmen and clergy met at the Fairmont Hotel to kick off a $3.6 million fundraising campaign to finish the construction of “a house of prayer for all people.” By 1934, the cathedral was opened for use, but it was only two-thirds done. The Great Depression slowed further work, and the first of two towers was completed in 1943. It would take another fundraising campaign in 1960 to finally complete the cathedral.

The final consecration on Nov. 20, 1964, was a city event beyond the church’s immediate faithful. “A procession of clergy and civic leaders — including Mayor John F. Shelley, a Roman Catholic — entered the newly completely cathedral shortly after 8:30am.” At the time, it was the third-largest cathedral in the United States.

Grace Cathedral has been one of the city’s primary locations for mourning and remembrance, hosting memorial services for Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert Kennedy, as well as an ecumenical service for Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk after they were gunned down at City Hall in 1978. In more recent years, columnist Herb Caen, society clothier Wilkes Bashford, 49ers star Dwight Clark and José Julio Sarria, known as the first openly gay candidate for political office in the U.S., were eulogized there.

On Sept. 14, 2001, a record-breaking group crowded inside Grace Cathedral and spilled out into the stone courtyards for a memorial service for those killed in the 9/11 terror attacks.

Years before, a similar-size crowd had arrived to hear Martin Luther King Jr. give a sermon in the newly consecrated church. King had committed to the event a year before and arrived in San Francisco shortly before his sermon on March 28, 1965 — just after the historic Selma-to-Montgomery march.

More than 2,500 jammed into the cathedral — “many had to sit in the aisles to hear Dr. King’s sermon,” The Chronicle reported. “Another throng — unable to get into the Cathedral — heard the sermon outside on loudspeakers.”

“We will never rise to our full national maturity … until we can remove the terrible cancer of racial injustices from the body politic.” King told the crowd. “We must learn to live as brothers, or perish as fools.”

Among the most notable architectural elements of the cathedral are the bronze and gilt reproductions of the famed Ghiberti doors, “The Gates of Paradise.” The original doors were created in Florence in the 14th century, and casts were made during World War II, as the doors were moved to protect them from the ravages of war.

Chronicle critic Alfred Frankenstein wasn’t a fan of the copies: “If the church had thought this through, it might have occurred to someone that Ghiberti’s doors are masterpieces which the whole world comes to see precisely because no one told him to go copy someone else,” he wrote in a generally negative 1964 review of the church’s architecture and artistic elements.

There’s been unique additions since the Grace Cathedral was finished. Two labyrinths — one inside and one outside the church — were installed in the past 25 years. There is also a special interfaith chapel dedicated to those affected by AIDS. Inside is an altar piece by artist Keith Haring — one of his last works — and a section of the AIDS quilt.

More from Chronicle Vault

• Not quite paved with gold: The year San Francisco’s mud was so bad, it swallowed up horses.

• Sorry, not happening right now: That (stunning) time The Chronicle gave away houses to boost circulation.

• 2.5 million gallons of Cabernet, Chardonnay: When the world’s largest wine ship nearly sank outside the Golden Gate.

• What happened to Seabiscuit? The famous horse gallops into Northern California retirement.

From the Archive is a weekly column by Bill Van Niekerken, the library director of The Chronicle, exploring the depths of the newspaper’s archive. It’s part of Chronicle Vault, a twice-weekly newsletter highlighting more than 150 years of San Francisco stories. It is edited by Taylor Kate Brown, The Chronicle’s newsletter editor. Sign up for the newsletter here and follow Chronicle Vault on Instagram. Contact Bill at bvanniekerken@sfchronicle.com and Taylor at taylor.brown@sfchronicle.com.

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Worth the wait: Grace Cathedral’s early days and biggest moments - San Francisco Chronicle
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