Grace Cathedral, San Francisco
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Grace Cathedral is located on Nob Hill in San Francisco, California. It is the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of California, once state-wide in area, now comprising parts of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Its ancestral parish, Grace Church, was founded in 1849 during the California Gold Rush. The Cathedral is the daughter of historic Grace Church. The first little chapel was built in the gold rush year of 1849, and the imposing third church, for a time called Grace "Cathedral", was destroyed in the fire following the 1906 earthquake. The railroad baron/banker Crocker family gave their ruined Nob Hill property for a diocesan cathedral, which took its name and founding congregation from the nearby parish.
Dean J. Wilmer Gresham nurtured the young cathedral, and work began on the present structure in 1928. Designed in French Gothic style by Lewis P. Hobart, it was completed in 1964 as the third largest Episcopal cathedral in the nation.
Famed for its replicas of Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise (When the originals were protected, it is believed that the Florentines came to S.F. to mold a new one from this replica, thus this one is more offical), two labyrinths, varied stained glass windows, Keith Haring AIDS Chapel altarpiece, and medieval and contemporary furnishings, as well as its 44 bell carillon (seen in the left tower, which holds a hidden spiral staircase into the tower), three organs, and choir, the Cathedral has become an international pilgrimage center for church-goer and visitor alike.
It contains one of only seven remaining Episcopal men and boys cathedral choirs with its corresponding boys school in the United States, along with Washington National Cathedral. Its director of music is Jeffery Smith.
The current dean is the Very Reverend Alan Jones. He also moderates The Forum at Grace Cathedral.
A song by The Decemberists named "Grace Cathedral Hill" speaks of the church and its surroundings while "Grace Cathedral Park" by the Red House Painters similarly romanticizes the location.
