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When one thinks of the city of San Francisco, one doesn't think of organized religion or churches. One thinks of the beats, hippies and like fellow travelers who gravitated towards more individual spiritual expression, if they had any spiritual inclinations at all. But this book shows that San Francisco was once populated with a large, church going population, that has since died out or moved to the less expensive suburbs. The book was written and photographed by people who specialize in architectural books, and the attention to detail, and historical research show this. Plus the general tone of the book is one of reverence, each sacred place being given its due, be it from a magnificent building, splendid interior design, distinctive stained glass windows, decorations or what not. The book is organized by period. The first chapter starts of with the oldest buildings, Mission Dolores 1776, and the Presidio Chapel and Grace Cathedral amongst others. The next chapter is after 1851 and goes up to the expansion of the city westwards to the ocean and over the hills. Buildings from the period include Old St. Mary's, Calvary Presbyterian and St. Boniface. The next period is 1875 through 1915 with buildings like St. Vincent De Paul, Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox and St. Dominic's. The last chapter is 1915 to 1985 and covers a wide variety of buildings from the traditional ones like St. Cecilia's to the modern St. Mary's Cathedral ( or as some call it St. Maytag's from its washing machine agitator look). The book is very careful to cover a variety of churches. Besides Catholic, there is Baptist, Methodist, Seventh-Day Adventist, Methodist Episcopal, Jewish congregations both orthodox and conservative, Armenian Apostolic, Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox and Episcopal. There is also Chines and Japanese Buddhist and Vedanta which boasts a particularly striking building. The authors even include the bronze buddha in the Japanese Tea Garden, the cross atop Mt. Davidson and the Pulgas Water Temple, which isn't really a temple, but a feature of the San Francisco Water Department's Crystal Springs reservoirs. The are some omissions in the book which are surprising. Holy Cross church which survived the 1906 earthquake and fire, a neoclassic gem with a fine organ, and next door the historic and once land-marked building St. Patrick's thought to be the oldest wood framed church in the city, dating from 1854. St. Patrick's had a California landmark plaque on it until city officials, ever keen to create more lebensraum for realtors and developers turned the buildings over to condo conversion and Chinese buddhists. I guess I can be glad they weren't torn down Also omitted was Sacred Heart and Guadeloupe Church on Broadway which has a neo barorque interior, like some of the original Spanish missions along with great windows. Last I heard it had no regular congregation, and was being used as a drug treatment center. Something that's a little confusing about the book is the dates given for a particular building. What the date actually refers to is the establishment of the original congregation, and the building may actually date from a later period. Sadly some buildings no longer are churchs, St. Brigids and First Congregational are part of the Art College. St. Paulus Lutheran was torched by the homeless, and St. Joseph's stands abandoned. Still this is an excellent book, great resource and happy addition to any book collection.Read full review
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