Alleys and Incense: The Real Chinatown

Old St Mary's Cathedral

California's first cathedral, built in 1854 with granite cut in China and bricks shipped around Cape Horn. The clock still bears its warning to nineteenth-century sinners.

This is Old St. Mary's, the first cathedral built in California. Its cornerstone was laid in 1853, and it opened at Christmas midnight mass in 1854. The granite in its foundation was quarried and cut in China, then shipped across the Pacific.

The bricks came from New England, carried around Cape Horn as ships' ballast. At the time, it was the tallest building in San Francisco. The 1906 earthquake left it standing, but the fire that followed gutted the interior, burning so hot it melted the church bells and the marble altar. Only the brick shell and the bell tower survived.

Look at the clock face. Below it is a line from Ecclesiasticus: 'Son, observe the time and fly from evil.' That was aimed squarely at the men who visited the brothels that lined this neighborhood in the 1850s. The Paulist Fathers have run the parish since 1894, and in 1903 they opened the first Chinese Catholic mission in the country here. Step inside if the doors are open.

A self-guided pamphlet at the entrance shows photographs of the church before and after the fire.

Portsmouth Square

The oldest public square in San Francisco, now Chinatown's living room, where elders play cards, practice tai chi, and gather daily on the benches.

You are in Portsmouth Square, the first public square in San Francisco. It was laid out in the 1830s when the city was still a Mexican village called Yerba Buena. In 1846, Captain John Montgomery of the USS Portsmouth raised the American flag here and claimed the settlement for the United States. The square took his ship's name, and the settlement took the name San Francisco a year later.

Today, this is Chinatown's living room. On any given morning you will see elders practicing tai chi in slow arcs. At the card tables, men play poker and Chinese chess for pocket change. The concrete playground animals near the center represent the Chinese zodiac.

The pedestrian bridge on the east side leads to the Chinese Culture Center inside the Hilton, but the real show is right here on the benches. Pick a spot and watch for a few minutes. The rhythms of the square have not changed much in decades, even as the skyline around it has.