HISTORY

St. Emydius Church

The 1906 Earthquake & Fire reshaped San Francisco in many different ways. It destroyed entire neighborhoods and San Franciscans started populating new areas. The name of St. Emydius, the Patron Saint against earthquakes, was adopted for this new parish because so many original parishioners had been refugees from the 1906 disaster.

More information about the parish can be found here.

Year 1910 -

The first location for the local church was a Hall owned by Barney Farley on the west side of Brighton Avenue, just south of Ocean Avenue.

Year 1914 -

First St. Emydius Catholic Church on DeMontfort Avenue. The handsome Tudor Gothic style church with wide entrance steps and a single corner tower opened in 1914, but it took only a decade for the congregation to outgrow the building.

Year 1928 -

The new St. Emydius, a golden-domed, twin-towered structure modeled after the Cathedral of Guadaloupe in Mexico City, was dedicated. It still stands today. The church's 800-person-capacity was tested over the next forty years as the surrounding neighborhoods filled with new homes and large families.