St. Peter's Ponders Rebuilding

By John Cumming

Wedged between an apartment building and single-family residences on 29th Avenue near Clement Street, St. Peter's Episcopal Church looks like a relic from another era. St. Peter's small, older congregation also may look like part of an institutional relic from another era - but looks can be deceiving.

The two brick structures and wooden house that make up St. Peter's are home to a Russian language pre-school, several 12-step programs, a social service agency, programs for developmentally-disabled adults and yoga classes. The congregation, which includes both neighborhood residents and others who travel up to 40 miles for Sunday services, is a "socially committed and spiritually inquisitive" group that earned a listing in the Paul Wilkes' national guidebook, "Excellent Protestant Congregations: The Guide to Best Places and Practices."

The dilapidated, traditional-looking church structure is not what it appears to be. For the past 15 years, the sanctuary's only function has been as a storage facility. Worship services and other meetings take place in a basement area known as Collins Hall, accessed through a garden path on the north side of the building.

St. Peters' dilemma is what to do with its dilapidated buildings while preserving its congregation and commitment to the community.

The congregation was established in 1867 by supporters of a men's choir that Grace Church (now Cathedral) had started but quickly dismissed as too controversial. After years of meeting in a borrowed space, St. Peter's completed and moved into a downtown facility in 1903. Three years later, the wooden building was completely destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire. That led to the construction of a brick building at St. Peter's current Outer Richmond District location. The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake did more damage to St. Peter's than to any other Episcopal church in the City, rendering the nave unusable.

Since then, the congregation has worshiped in Collins Hall. For many in the current congregation, including current priest Fr. David Rickey, this is the only St. Peter's they have known.

After the quake, members raised money and hired architects to seismically retrofit and restore the church as closely as possible to its original state. In time, however, the congregation realized it could neither afford, nor did it particularly want to go back to, that model. Recently, they have decided to raze the existing structures and replace them with low-cost housing for the developmentally disabled, along with a church on the side. The only part of the existing structure that may survive is the facade of the currently unusable nave, which might be preserved for historical purposes.

The site is large enough to support about two-dozen housing units and a rebuilt church. The reasons for targeting the developmentally disabled include need, the fact that St. Peter's already houses an agency serving this constituency and the limited impact on area parking.

At the same time, St. Peter's hopes to leverage enough funds through contributions and the value of its land to rebuild a new church, office and meeting spaces.

St. Peter's has begun the permitting process and recently reached an agreement with an experienced development partner, the Housing Services Affiliate of the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Association, to seek the funds needed to make the plan a reality. St. Peter's also must obtain approval from its parent organization, the Episcopal Diocese of California.