ILHS Speaker Series – Tony Bucher on Old Saint Mary’s

Tony Bucher will speak about “Old Saint Mary’s – San Francisco’s Irish Monument”
The deep and varied story of the Irish in San Francisco is intrinsic to the history, character, and physical structure of the City, yet the Irish barely register in popular conceptions of San Francisco’s general history. In this sense the story of Irish San Francisco is a hidden story, kept alive in the memory of succeeding generations, and represented in a few very visible monuments with deep historical and personal resonance.

One such monument is Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Chinatown. The structure was the largest building in the City when it was completed in 1854 in the raucous Barbary Coast era, at the very beginnings of American San Francisco. Standing at the head of the first block of the steep rise of California Street on Nob Hill, it rests prominently positioned above the forest of buildings that steadily grew into an orderly and sober downtown in succeeding years.Old Saint Mary’s served as a key seat of institutional power in the early development of the City and the greater West, and as an important focus of community for a significant portion of the population for generations.

Beyond the story of the church itself and its features and biographical details, Old Saint Mary’s has broader significance as a metaphor for a history nearly unknown in the City the Irish helped build, with the remains of Kathleen Sullivan, the Irish benefactor, interred in the basement of her Irish church, hidden in plain sight. UICC 5pm