St. John's Presbyterian Church (San Francisco, California)

Saint John's Presbyterian Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	25 Lake St. and 201 Arguello Blvd., San Francisco, California
Area	less than one acre
Built	1905 (1905)
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 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 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.

See also

• Gothic Revival churches in California
• National Register of Historic Places listings in San Francisco, California