Grace Cathedral, San Francisco Bay as the centerpiece of the 1939-40 Golden Gate International Exposition. The carillon was first played from its Singing Tower home on Christmas Eve, 1940, and was formally dedicated in 1943. The bells have been rung to mark a number of important events, including D-Day and the centenary of the San Francisco cable car system. Photographer Ansel Adams produced a series of photographs of the uncompleted cathedral in 1935. "Grace Cathedral Park" is the first song on Red House Painters' first self-titled album. "Grace Cathedral Hill" is Track 7 on The Decemberists' "Castaways and Cutouts" album. It recounts a New
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco ancestral parish, Grace Church, was founded in 1849 during the California Gold Rush. The cathedral is the daughter of the historic Grace Church. The first little chapel was built in the gold rush year of 1849 and the imposing third church, for a time called Grace "cathedral", was destroyed in the fire following the 1906 earthquake. The family of a railroad baron and banker, William Henry Crocker, gave their ruined Nob Hill property for a diocesan cathedral, which took its name and founding congregation from the nearby parish. In 1865, Mark Twain published (in "The Californian" newspaper) purported private correspondence