If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 319

St. Ignatius Cathedral, San Francisco, California, 1907

Sigrid “Taxi” Landaas Oliver took a trip to San Francisco in the fall of 1907.  The postcard above, with a photograph of earthquake damaged Saint Ignatius Cathedral, has a message in Norwegian written in pencil and addressed to her sister, Petra.  It is dated 3 October 1907.  That would be about a year and a half following the earthquake that damaged not only the buildings but also the gas lines and water lines, which subsequently caused fire and no water pressure for the firemen’s hoses eventually destroying about 80% of the city of San Francisco, and resulted in the deaths of about 3,000 people.  It is still remembered as one of the worst earthquakes in the United States and had a magnitude of 7.8.  


The pencil message from Sigrid is hard to read but from what I could make out it, it says that she arrived on 1 October and was having an excellent trip.  She was with M. Jansen and her friend Erica.  It was warm and there were many things to see.  She had not yet found Rier but she was thinking about returning on Sunday.  She sends greetings to Petra and her husband, Ingvald and the others.

Sigrid Johanna Landaas, ca 1907

 
Today Saint Ignatius is a Catholic church staffed by Jesuit priests found on the campus of the University of San Francisco and serves as the chapel for the university.  It was named for the Society of Jesus founder, Ignatius of Loyola.  The modern church is the fifth church with this name.  The first one, built in 1855, was a small wood-frame church located beside a school that became Saint Ignatius Academy, a forerunner of the current university.  A larger brick church replaced the wooden one.  Due to a dispute between the local priest and the Archbishop involving membership in the parish, in 1863 the archdiocese stripped Saint Ignatius of its parish status.  The photograph shows the rubble on the ground in front of the ruins of the third version built in 1880.   It could accommodate up to 4,000 worshippers.  It had only been in use for 25 years when it was destroyed by the earthquake and fire.  The fourth version, once again of wood, was hastily built following the disaster.  The fifth, and present church, was dedicated in 1914 and served as the university’s chapel until 1994 when the Archdiocese of San Francisco reinstated Saint Ignatius as a parish to include serving the surrounding neighborhood.  It survived the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and has recently been renovated and reinforced.  It is one of the largest churches in San Francisco and a prominent landmark.  A number of Bay Area artists have shown works in its Manresa Gallery.

No credits or publishing information is found on the black & white picture postcard, only the written note on the front at the lower left identifying the structure as “St. Ignatius Cathedral & School San Fr.”  The card is one of those interesting historical cards that allows us to peek into the past and see a small part of a momentous event. 

For additional information, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Ignatius_Church_(San_Francisco)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake

Also:  check Google Images for pictures of the exterior and interior of the current church.