About Saint Paulus

Over the past 158-year congregational history (since our founding on 15th May 1867), Saint Paulus church has achieved the following:

• The first Lutheran church – Missouri Synod congregation in California and one of the oldest churches in San Francisco, founded in 1867 by Pastor Jacob M Buehler.
• In the early 1890s because of the growth in membership, Saint Paulus built a cathedral like building drawing from European designs at the corner of Gough and Eddy St. in San Francisco (999 Eddy Street) that quickly became an architectural treasure gracing the skyline of the city.
• Saint Paulus started the first parochial school west of the Rockies and helped establish dozens of churches (still thriving today), within the first 40 years of our existence.
• As the ‘mother church’ for dozens of new start Lutheran congregations in the city and Northern California since the late 1800’s, we have partnered with community organizing groups like PICO; and with other nonprofits like SF Night Ministry, SF Interfaith Council and Sojourn’s Chaplaincy at SF General Hospital; and with churches like Santa Maria y Santa Marta Lutheran Church and St. Francis to coordinate services for the homeless.
• We maintained the same spirit shown in the care of those displaced and victimized by the 1906 Earthquake and Fire – and one of three significant structures that survived the 1906 disaster. Notably the building was saved by the only working fire hydrant adjacent to the church.
• This miracle hydrant savior resulted in the church used as a hospital and shelter for the 1906 catastrophe victims, caring for over 10,000, according to the records of the First National Guard Emergency Hospital.
• Crowning our success was the addition, in the late 1940s through to the 50s, with the construction of two educational facilities along Gough St and on Turk, both of which now house the Chinese American international School.
• The turmoil experienced in San Francisco, beginning in late 1950s with the urban redevelopment movement particularly in the Western Addition of the city, gave way for the growing tensions between cultures, the rise in civil rights assertion, the increasing skepticism of institutional policy and the first evidences of homelessness all played out in the life and ministry of Saint Paulus. The congregation used its facilities as a community meeting center, its kitchen for community activities, its school for stability; it reached out to apartment dwellers, to motorcyclists, to the elderly, to Native Americans; and it became increasingly identified with the needy and marginalize in the community. It repurposed the school facility as a shelter for homeless women and subsequently for a city-sponsored shelter.
• Following the example of those who resisted the “Negro Removal” (Urban Renewal) in the Fillmore in the 1960s, we have fought to cross the “digital divide” and stir up support for real care for the displaced on our streets.
• In the same way in which Saint Paulus’ parochial school championed the integration in our educational ministry in the 1970s we have welcomed those who have been cast off, and marginalized, into our church fellowship and leadership.
• In the latter decades of the twentieth century, a host of issues would take hold of our San Francisco community – the AIDS epidemic, discrimination due to sexual orientation, homelessness, drug use, mental illness inequality and racism. Saint Paulus did not shy away, but stepped up to provide programs like the Friendship Banquet for those with HIV/AIDS, shelter and food for the homeless, advocacy for LGBTQ, hosting the ordination of the first gay pastoral candidates in the Lutheran Church, and making available facilities for those suffering from mental illness.
• Since 2007, the congregation has sustained ministries among the HIV/AIDS community, maintained a diverse congregation membership, sought out collaborative relationships through SFCARES, provided prescription eyeglasses for those who need them, and continued support advocacy on behalf of the growing population of mentally ill on our streets.
• By 2025, Saint Paulus will relocate back to our beloved 999 Eddy Street location; a newly built church with a contemporary and aesthetically stunning appearance, very different than our original church that was burned down in a fire in 1995. With a 13,000 sq ft facility including a kitchen, showers, office space, a huge Sanctuary and dining area, we will continue to provide for our community and advocate for the homeless, as we have done for over one and a half centuries.

And we’ve only just begun…