The Episcopal cathedral church of the Diocese of C...

The Episcopal cathedral church of the Diocese of California, that is the seat of the bishop, built 1928-1964 in the historic French Gothic as one of the largest Episcopalian cathedrals in the US. A great place to see French Gothic ecclesiastical architecture, and much precious art in its intended setting, ranging from Gothic to contemporary. A set of running murals along the sides of the nave represent the story of San Francisco, from the first Anglican mass at Drake's landing, and the coming of the Franciscan missionaries to the founding of the UN. The only oddity is that its facade holds niches designed to hold statuary images of saints, but the bishop at the time of its completion, James Pike, opted to leave the niches empty. Two years later this bishop was censured and resigned, and after his son killed himself he turned to clairvoyanice and spiritualism. He had also been twice divorced, and was an alcoholic. In any case, the older stained glass windows are beautiful and cast beautiful light into the nave. The main doors were cast from Lorenzo Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise at the Florence Baptistry.
For those who enjoy choral music, this is probably the place to go in the Bay Area. They still have a choir of men and boys who sing evensong (part of vespers) once a week during the school term. And they host choral concerts from the likes of Westminster Abbey, Kings College, etc. Some of the canons still employ the melodious Queen's English.
They also have a floor labyrinth traced from Chartres Cathedral. An adjacent quadrangle which houses a fine k-8 boys school. In the crypt there is a cafe and gift shop. Unfortunately there was a beautiful, limestone chapter house fronting the facade that they decided to tear down in order to build a massive and quite ugly staircase all along the facade.