Historical Marker · No. 772
Original Site of St. Mary's College
San Francisco, San Francisco County · California
Erected by California State Park Commission in cooperation with St. Mary's College, its alumni, and the California Historical Society, 1962
The one word the bronze underlines is excellence. The college's own archive tells a story about money. Father James Croke spent two years raising funds across California and brought in $37,166.50, but the campus here cost more than $150,000, and Archbishop Alemany borrowed the rest. With tuition too low to carry the debt and good teachers hard to find, the college was near bankruptcy when Alemany went to Rome for help, and the Christian Brothers sailed from New York in 1868. They moved the college to Oakland in 1889 and to Moraga in 1928.
What the plaque says
St. Mary's College In August 1863, Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany, O.P. opened St. Mary's College at this location with a faculty of two diocesan priests, four laymen and two student teachers. In August 1868, at the invitation of the archbishop, Brother Justin McMahon and seven Christian Brothers took charge of St. Mary's. The Christian Brothers have manifested the principle characterized by the best educational institutions: excellence. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 772 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with St. Mary's College, its alumni, and the California Historical Society, September 29, 1962.
Where it stands
37.73513, -122.42436 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Muir Beach Overlook — 12 miA cliff edge on Highway 1, and the concrete dugouts where two-man crews watched the sea after Pearl Harbor.
- Muir Woods National Monument — 14 miA redwood canyon saved from a reservoir by a gift, and named for a man who had been there once.
- Earthquake Trail — 29 miA short loop along the San Andreas, where a broken fence shows how far Point Reyes moved in under a minute in 1906.
- Kule Loklo — 30 miA Coast Miwok village built in the 1970s to honour a people its builders were told had died out. They had not.