Sarcophagus of Thomas Starr King

The bronze's present tense ran out in 2009. Three years earlier the legislature had voted, in the closing minutes of its session, to replace King's statue in Statuary Hall with one of Ronald Reagan, and the senator who wrote the resolution admitted he was not sure who Thomas Starr King was. King had lived in California less than four years when he died at thirty-nine in March 1864. His statue went to Capitol Park in Sacramento. He stayed here, in the marble sarcophagus the church brought along when it moved in 1889.

What the plaque says

Thomas Starr King Born Dec: 17. A·D. 1824. Died: March 4. A·D. 1864. Sarcophagus of Thomas Starr King Apostle of liberty, humanitarian, Unitarian minister, who in the Civil War bound California to the Union and led her to excel all other states in support of the United States Sanitary Commission, predecessor to the American Red Cross. His statue, together with that of Father Junípero Serra, represents California in the National Capitol. His name is borne by a Yosemite peak --"A man to match our mountains". California Registered Historical Landmark No. 691 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the California Historical Society and the First Unitarian Church of San Francisco, April 24, 1960.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Muir Beach Overlook — 10 mi
  A cliff edge on Highway 1, and the concrete dugouts where two-man crews watched the sea after Pearl Harbor.
• Muir Woods National Monument — 11 mi
  A redwood canyon saved from a reservoir by a gift, and named for a man who had been there once.
• Earthquake Trail — 27 mi
  A short loop along the San Andreas, where a broken fence shows how far Point Reyes moved in under a minute in 1906.
• Kule Loklo — 27 mi
  A Coast Miwok village built in the 1970s to honour a people its builders were told had died out. They had not.

More markers nearby

• Birthplace of the United Nations, War Memorial Complex — 0.4 mi
• Site of the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art — 0.8 mi
• Union Square — 0.8 mi
• Old United States Mint — 0.9 mi