"The heights now occupied by Jackson, Washington, Clay, and Sacramento were immense sand hills thickly covered with brush and scrub oaks.
The history of our great Archdiocese would not be complete without retelling the pivotal contributions of St. Brigid Church. Bishop Joseph Alemany was consecrated bishop of Monterey in 1850, and in 1853 when the new Archdiocese of San Francisco was erected, he was transferred here to serve as our first archbishop. Diocesan clergy were scarce in the early years of the Archdiocese, and Archbishop Alemany began the practice of lending the services of the Dominican friars to establish, care for, and manage San Francisco's first Catholic parishes. The first example of this was the establishment of St. Brigid's in 1863. St. Brigid's was founded at the height of the American Civil War, 10 years after the founding of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Its parish boundaries were vast, comprising all the land north of Bush St., and all the land west from Larkin St. to the Pacific Ocean. Its boundary was expanded further in 1880, to Jones Street, so that residents there could avoid scaling Russian Hill to reach Old St. Mary's or St. Francis of Assisi. Taking over lands formerly assigned to the church of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Brigid's started out very much as a frontier parish, situated at the edge of the city, and encompassing a vast tract of land in San Francisco. Indeed, the only Catholic church lying farther from the city center at that time was Mission Dolores. Like Mission Dolores, St. Brigid's boundaries were gradually reduced as settlement proceeded south and west: first by St. Mary's Cathedral parish (1886), then by St. Dominic's (1887), finally by St. Vincent de Paul (1901). In 1873, the Dominicans found a permanent home in the Western Addition, and in 1875 left St. Brigid Church to the care of the diocesans. The original St. Brigid Church was completed in 1864, a plain wooden one-story building, 40' wide by 76' long, on the southwest corner of Van Ness & Broadway. It was built atop a 15-foot high sand dune, and entered by ascending a flight of wooden steps. In October 1889, Father John Cottle was appointed pastor of St. Brigid's, and the next 37 years of his pastorate saw the whole area built up with stately Victorian homes. Sensing a pressing need for a more stately church than the one erected in 1864, Fr. Cottle undertook plans for the present St. Brigid Church in 1896. As the City's muddy streets were gradually paved over, Fr. Cottle deftly purchased old granite curbstones and crossing stones—"stones of history" from San Francisco's early days—and stored them on a vacant part of the church lot, to be used in the building of St. Brigid Church. The foundation and basement of the church were completed in 1897, and the crypt opened for Divine Services later that year. Work on the superstructure began in August 1900 and was completed in December 1904, making St. Brigid's the first church in San Francisco to be constructed of enduring granite. Due in part to this sturdy construction, the 1906 earthquake and fire damaged but did not destroy St. Brigid's. The church was quickly repaired and recommissioned about 8 months later, on Dec. 16, 1906.
We hope and pray that the church will be reopened someday soon, so that others can enjoy and worship inside that place which the commentators wrote nearly a century ago: "[Its] exterior is worthy of contemplation, [but] it's only upon entering the sacred edifice that its real beauty may be appreciated. . .one is all but overwhelmed by the grandeur of the interior. . .in style, character, proportion, and materials, it stands preeminently as the most beautiful sacred edifice in San Francisco." (1904) St. Brigid Church—that "beautiful and magnificent granite structure. . .in which the people of generations yet unborn will come to pay divine adoration to Almighty God, stands as a silent and permanent witness. . .a magnificent granite structure, whose very construction spells permanency, and whose outlines and interior fittings proclaim the ‘beauty of God's house and the place where His Glory dwelleth'." (1913) ***
Sources: San Francisco Monitor, Christmas 1904;
St. Brigid Church "Golden Jubilee Souvenir", September 1913; Matthew Brady, The Independent, June 2, 1998, p. 27. Photo Source: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library. |
This article was published in July 1, 2003 Newsletter of the Committee To Save St. Brigid Church. [PDF]
HOMEPAGE