St. Patrick Church in San Francisco offers a historical experience. With a rich spiritual history extending 158 years as historic landmark number 4 in the City of San Francisco. For an interactive tour see our Interactive Gallery.

St. Patrick Parish in San Francisco

We began on June 9,1851, when Father John Maginnis celebrated Mass in a rented hall on the corner of Fourth and Jessie Streets, directly east of what today is Fox's Hardware. By September, however, a temporary church was built on a lot facing Market Street, where the Sheraton Palace now stands.

Like many of the Catholics who were settling in the newly formed diocese of San Francisco, the priest was an immigrant; Father Maginnis was born on October 20th, Fifty-three years earlier in Duleek, County Meath, Ireland. The steady stream of new settlers into California - and particularly into San Francisco - which began with the Gold Rush of 1849, necessitated the expansion of the original church some time prior to June, 1854.

After the Civil War, as the parish continued to grow, Father Peter J. Grey purchased the ground on Mission Street where the present church and rectory now stand. Construction began in April, 1870. When the new church was dedicated on March 17, 1872, the Catholic population of the parish was estimated at thirty- thousand.

Schools

The naming of the Alexis Apartments is a tribute to the Daughters of Charity int he South of Market area, and in particular to the beloved Sister Alexis Kuhn (1869-1972). Sister Alexis taught in St. Patrick's Parish for forty-four years. Now that St. Elizabeth Seton, foundress of the Daughters of Charity, is a formally canonized saint (1975) we feel sure that she will continue to shower blessings on this part of the West where her spiritual children first started their work.