CATHEDRAL INCORPORATION

To be alive is to be incorporate, growing and maturing, and not without setbacks and detours. So it is, also, with great cathedrals. In the fall of 1906, the unofficial tent city of refugees that had occupied the northern half of the Crocker/Grace Cathedral property after the disaster was closed. Called "Camp Rough Rider" for Teddy Roosevelt's famed Spanish-American War cavalry unit, the camp had been set up on the mansions' lawns and carriage circle with the permission of the Crocker family. A temporary wooden diocesan office, a modest two-story shingle structure, was built on what is now the northeast corner of the cathedral courtyard. The building, which also housed temporary cathedral

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offices, opened October 14, 1906. A two-story bungalow was built just west of the Sacramento Street Crocker carriage gate (Chapter House library site), to be occupied by Grace Church rector Dr. John Evans and his family until appointment of a cathedral dean. The vast ruins of the Crocker mansions, on the south half of the block, remained much as the fire left them.

Sunday services continued at Bishop Nichols' brick Tudor 2515 Webster Street home, only slightly damaged by the quake. Sadly, it no longer exists today. A precious relic from that time is the current Chapel of Grace free-standing altar, a side table from the Nichols residence, that the congregation is said to have used as a temporary altar. It was given to the Cathedral by Bishop Nichols' descendants and reconsecrated for permanent cathedral use in 1980.

Chapel of Grace free-standing altar

On November 2, 1906, Grace Cathedral Corporation was formed. Unfortunately, legal problems of property transfer due to some unpaid taxes delayed official incorporation and transfer until January 24, 1907, with legal recognition made February 2, 1907. Finally, on March 12, 1907, William H. Crocker signed the deed of transfer of the block to the Diocese of California. The Nob Hill site occupied 2.6 acres with a 60-foot rise in height diagonally across the site. Siting the future cathedral would prove to be a challenge.

The makeup of the first board of trustees of Grace Cathedral Corporation was equally balanced between clergy and laity. Clerical members were Bishop William F. Nichols, Rev. Dr. John Bakewell (rector of Trinity Church, Oakland and designer of the cathedral seal), Rev. Dr. Frederick W. Clampett (beloved rector of Trinity Church, San Francisco, and noted Examiner columnist), Rev. John A. Emery (archdeacon and bishop's right hand man) Rev. Edward L. Parsons (rector of St. Mark's Church, Berkeley, and later successor to Bishop Nichols), and the memorably-named Rev. Burr M. Weeden (rector of St. Luke's Church, San Francisco). The lay trustees, influential local businessmen, were William H. Crocker (banker, philanthropist and site donor), William F. Babcock (member of the Committee of Fifty, restoring the city), Albert N. Drown, Charles D. Haven, Archibald C. Kains (governor of the San Francisco Reserve Bank), and Lansing M. Ringwalt. Trustee minutes show how much remained to be accomplished, and progress would be very slow for the next seven years as the diocese and city recovered from the earthquake and fire. Yet spirits were high and the future looked bright.

"Vision, Disaster, Gift," an exhibit relating to the 1906 disaster and the founding of Grace Cathedral is on display in the cathedral crypt corridor through 2007.

 
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