Saints Peter and Paul - Washington Square's Spires

Saints Peter and Paul - Washington Square's Spires

Photo: Antony-22, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on San Francisco, District by District, a free self-guided tour.

The white twin spires on the north side of Washington Square belong to Saints Peter and Paul Church, completed in 1924 to replace a church destroyed in 1906. It became the spiritual center of Italian North Beach, and Mass is still said in Italian as well as English and Cantonese, a sign of how Chinatown and North Beach have grown into each other.

Two famous names are tied to its steps. Joe DiMaggio, a North Beach fisherman's son, posed for photographs here with Marilyn Monroe after their 1954 wedding at City Hall, and his funeral was held here in 1999.

Washington Square itself was set aside in 1847, one of the city's first public spaces. On its Columbus Avenue side, look for the bronze statue of volunteer firefighters, paid for by the will of Lillie Hitchcock Coit, the same patron whose money built the tower on the hill.

More on Wikipedia: Saints Peter and Paul Church, San Francisco · Washington Square · Joe DiMaggio

Stops on this tour

  1. Ferry Building and the Embarcadero - Where the City Met the World
  2. Financial District and Jackson Square - Gold Rush on the Old Shoreline
  3. Chinatown - The Neighborhood That Refused to Move
  4. North Beach and Telegraph Hill - Little Italy and the Beats
  5. Fisherman's Wharf - Italian Boats and Old Ships
  6. Nob Hill and Russian Hill - Cable Cars, Mansions and the Great Fire
  7. The Presidio - Two Centuries Guarding the Golden Gate
  8. Japantown and the Fillmore - Two Communities, One Neighborhood
  9. Haight-Ashbury - From Victorian Suburb to Summer of Love
  10. Golden Gate Park - Sand Dunes Turned Into a Park
  11. The Castro - A Neighborhood That Became a Movement
  12. The Mission - Where San Francisco Began
  13. Civic Center - Domes, Charters and Protest
  14. South of Market - From Rincon Hill to the Tech Boom