Swedenborgian Church
National Historic Landmark

Swedenborgian Church

San Francisco, San Francisco County, California
Listed
August 17, 2004
Type
Building
Period
Civil War
Ref No.
04001154

About this property

The Swedenborgian Church is a historic church complex at 2107 Lyon Street in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Built in 1895 for a Swedenborgian congregation, it is considered one of California's earliest pure Arts and Crafts buildings, with design contributions by A. C. Schweinfurth, A. Page Brown, Bernard Maybeck, William Keith, and Bruce Porter. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2004. The Swedenborgian Church is located at the northwest corner of Lyon and Washington Streets in San Francisco's Pacific Heights neighborhood, on a lot that has been leveled by fill held by a stuccoed retaining wall. The complex is basically rectangular, housing the church, parsonage, and parish house amid landscaped gardens. It is accessed by an arched portico, flanked by similar arched openings, which form a sort of portico in front of the sanctuary facing Lyon Street, covered by a tile roof. The sanctuary is a single-story structure, with a thick walls finished with a variety of colored and textured bricks. The gabled roof is supported by heavy timbers, which are exposed on the inside. The doors into the sanctuary are made of dark tongue-and-groove oak boards, and are fastened by hand-wrought iron hinges. The interior of the main sanctuary is dominated by massive timbers, mainly madrone clad in Douglas fir wainscoting. The first pastor of the church was Rev. Joseph Worcester (May 20, 1836 - August 4, 1913), who bought the land and worked with the architects to design the church. Contributions were made to the plans by A. C. Schweinfurth, A. Page Brown, Bernard Maybeck, William Keith, and Bruce Porter. The then-nascent Arts and Crafts movement was viewed by Worcester as harmonizing particularly well with Swedenborgian teachings about harmonizing man with nature. The church opened for worship March 17, 1895. It remains essentially the same as when it was built. National Register of Historic Places listings in San Francisco 3. Building with Nature: Inspiration for the Arts & Crafts Home (Gibbs Smith, Nov. 2005), Chapter 3 is devoted to the church.

Location

3200 Washington St.
San Francisco, San Francisco County, California
37.79037, -122.44633

Categories

ARCHITECTUREART
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Questions about this property

When was Swedenborgian Church listed on the National Register?

Swedenborgian Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 17, 2004.

What type of historic resource is Swedenborgian Church?

Swedenborgian Church is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

Is Swedenborgian Church a National Historic Landmark?

Yes. Swedenborgian Church has been designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL), the highest level of federal recognition for historic properties in the United States.

What is the period of significance for Swedenborgian Church?

The period of significance for Swedenborgian Church is recorded as the civil_war era.

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