San Francisco County
Biographies
ST. JAMES
EPISCOPAL CHURCH
The St. James Episcopal Church of San Francisco was founded in the year 1890, and the first services were held in the residence of Mrs. John Richards, later being conducted in a small hall. St. James was originally a mission, and was attended by clergymen from St. Paul’s Church. Rev. S. Neales was the founder of the church, but died shortly afterward, and Bishop William Ford Nichols dedicated the mission, and later the church.
The first priest in charge of St. James was the Rev. Horace Clapham from St. Stephen’s Church, under Rev. E. J. Lion. Rev. D. C. Gardiner was the assistant, and was followed in this position by Rev. Samuel J. Lee, who became the first pastor August 11, 1904, and is the present incumbent. The church had become a regular parish July 6th preceding.
In 1924, the present church building was erected. It has seating capacity for three hundred people, and it is estimated that the total value of the church property is forty-two thousand, five hundred dollars. The church structure itself is of attractive architecture, with beamed ceilings and handsome glass memorial windows. The Tiffany window behind the altar, costing twenty-eight hundred dollars, is an exceptional creation of glass.
Something of the excellent growth of St. James parish may be noted by the fact that when Rev. Lee became pastor there were only eighteen families therein, and this membership was reduced at the time of the fire in 1906 to eleven families, while at this writing there are two hundred and forty-six communicants.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 3 Pages 184-185.
© 2008 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S SAN
FRANCISCO BIOGRAPIES