Grace Cathedral

Grace Cathedral is one of the three cathedrals in San Francisco, the Episcopal one. It took almost 40 years to build (or almost 70 depending whether you count to consecration or to end of construction) and the result is magnificent.

You can come in to view the art^{1There is so much art inside that it is pointless to list it. For a really thorough look get a self-guided tour at the Cathedral, but if you have time for nothing else at least look at the doors. They are replicas of Lorenzo Ghiberti's doors in the Florence Cathedral that Michelangelo liked enough to name them "Doors of Paradise".} and the gigantic Rose Window^{2Memorably featured in Tales of the City (1993). The cathedral can also be seen in Vertigo (1958), The Pleasure of His Company (1961), Bullitt (1968), Time After Time (1979), Bicentennial Man (1999), Milk (2008), and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)}, walk one or both of the labyrinths^{3It's the home of the Modern Labyrinth Movement https://www.veriditas.org/New-to-the-Labyrinth}, but if you have any time at all try to attend one of their light, art, and sound events^{4https://gracecathedral.org/events/}. These vary from sound baths and light shows to dozens of dance performances happening at once. You do not need to be religious to enjoy them and you will feel welcomed.

Part of the Cathedral Close stands on the site that the railroad baron Charles Crocker surrounded with a forty-foot high spite fence to force Nicholas Yung, a German-Jewish undertaker, to sell his home. Yung moved his house, but he did not sell. The fence stood for three decades and outlasted Crocker. Yung finally sold the lot years after Crocker's death, in 1904. Less than two years later the Crocker house, as almost everything else atop Nob Hill, burned down^{5The Crocker House was the least of the losses from the 1906 earthquake and fire. As Ambrose Bierce wrote: "There are uglier buildings in America than the Crocker House on Nob Hill, but they were built with public money for a public purpose; among architectural triumphs of private fortune and personal taste it is peerless."}.

^{1There is so much art inside that it is pointless to list it. For a really thorough look get a self-guided tour at the Cathedral, but if you have time for nothing else at least look at the doors. They are replicas of Lorenzo Ghiberti's doors in the Florence Cathedral that Michelangelo liked enough to name them "Doors of Paradise".}There is so much art inside that it is pointless to list it. For a really thorough look get a self-guided tour at the Cathedral, but if you have time for nothing else at least look at the doors. They are replicas of Lorenzo Ghiberti's doors in the Florence Cathedral that Michelangelo liked enough to name them "Doors of Paradise".
^{2Memorably featured in Tales of the City (1993). The cathedral can also be seen in Vertigo (1958), The Pleasure of His Company (1961), Bullitt (1968), Time After Time (1979), Bicentennial Man (1999), Milk (2008), and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)}Memorably featured in Tales of the City (1993). The cathedral can also be seen in Vertigo (1958), The Pleasure of His Company (1961), Bullitt (1968), Time After Time (1979), Bicentennial Man (1999), Milk (2008), and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)
^{3It's the home of the Modern Labyrinth Movement https://www.veriditas.org/New-to-the-Labyrinth}It's the home of the Modern Labyrinth Movement https://www.veriditas.org/New-to-the-Labyrinth
^{4https://gracecathedral.org/events/}https://gracecathedral.org/events/
^{5The Crocker House was the least of the losses from the 1906 earthquake and fire. As Ambrose Bierce wrote: "There are uglier buildings in America than the Crocker House on Nob Hill, but they were built with public money for a public purpose; among architectural triumphs of private fortune and personal taste it is peerless."}The Crocker House was the least of the losses from the 1906 earthquake and fire. As Ambrose Bierce wrote: "There are uglier buildings in America than the Crocker House on Nob Hill, but they were built with public money for a public purpose; among architectural triumphs of private fortune and personal taste it is peerless."