St. John's Presbyterian Church (San Francisco, California) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Saint John's Presbyterian Church
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 Location in San Francisco County
Location in California
Location in the United States
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| Location | 25 Lake St. and 201 Arguello Blvd., San Francisco, California |
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| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1905 |
| Architect | Dodge & Dolliver |
| Architectural style | Gothic Revival Shingle Style |
| NRHP reference No. | 95001555 |
| Added to NRHP | January 22, 1996 |
Saint John's Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian church at 25 Lake Street and 201 Arguello Boulevard in the Presidio Heights—northern Richmond District of San Francisco, California.
It was designed in a Gothic Revival Shingle Style and completed in 1905. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
History
St. John's was first located on Post Street near Mason at the former St. James Episcopal Church. That church was built in 1866 and then sold in 1870 to St. John's for $45,000. Dr. William Anderson Scott, the founder of San Francisco Theological Seminary, served as the first pastor from May 1870 until 1885. Membership in the church grew to 382 from 61 over this period. The church moved to the corner of California and Octavia Streets in 1888.
Membership fell after the move and the church had difficulty paying its mortgage. Calvary Presbyterian shared the church while they were building a new church. Calvary helped pay the mortgage and the two churches discussed merging. Nevertheless, St. John's moved again in 1902, this time to the present site in the Richmond district, with financial help from Arthur W. Foster.
The new site was surrounded by sand dunes until row houses were built in the neighborhood. The first service was held on Easter Sunday, April 15, 1906, three days before the great San Francisco earthquake. Damage from the quake was not repaired until a year later; in the meantime, services were held in members' homes. In the immediate aftermath of the quake, many people moved across the Bay to Berkeley, where former congregants of St. John's organized a new church, also called St. John's Presbyterian Church. Dr. George Granville Eldridge, former pastor of the San Francisco congregation, became the founding pastor of St. John's in Berkeley.
