"LOCATION. LOCATION. LOCATION."
"Take away St. Brigid, and a chasm opens in the middle."
In 1863 the founders of St. Brigid built their church at the corner of Broadway and Van Ness because the parish straddled the city's burgeoning new residential districts on Pacific Heights and Russian Hill. They decided that the new church should be located conspicuously on main thoroughfares with easy access from the south and the north.
The essential facts of St. Brigid's location have not changed since that time. A map of the area shows St. Brigid at the center of a ring of residential neighborhoods: Pacific Heights, Russian Hill and the Marina. The same map shows the location of the other Catholic churches in the northeastern part of the city. Again, there is a ring around St. Brigid. Take away St. Brigid, and a chasm opens in the middle.
In 1994 when then-Archbishop Quinn ordered St. Brigid closed, he cited "changing demographics" and an aging population in the area. The assumptions he used, we now know, were wrong because they did not take into account the revitalization that has occurred as younger residents have moved into the area: an area now without a neighborhood Catholic church.
HOMEPAGE
They decided that the new church should be located conspicuously on main thoroughfares with easy access from the south and the north.