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Located on 152 Church Street, St. Francis Lutheran Church has stood since 1906; its original name was St. Ansgar Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church. Built by the mainly Lutheran Nordic Immigrants of the time, the church sits in the heart of the Nordic-dominated Duboce-Market neighborhood. The church was designed in the Danish Gothic style with red brick laid over a wooden frame, and a wooden steeple. The building survived the 1906 earthquake and was used as an infirmary for several months. It acquired its current name in 1964. In the 1990s, after ordaining a lesbian couple as assistant pastors, the St. Francis congregation was expelled from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). After the ECLA made changes to their constitution in 2010, St. Francis was restored back to the ECLA in 2011.


Front of St. Francis Lutheran Church in 2017 (Dreamyshade)

Steeple, Spire, Overhead power line, Church

Photo of Rev. Anders H. Jensen, pastor of St. Angar's, from 1916 book (p. 73)

Eyebrow, Collar, Forehead, Facial hair

Photo of St. Angar's Danish Evangelic Lutheran Church from 1916 book (p. 73)

Steeple, Spire, Paper Product, Tower

Before the church was established, Lutheran clergy had to come to San Francisco from Fresno to meet the needs of the community. As the Danish community increased, it was eventually big enough to develop its own church. The community wrote to Queen Louise of Denmark asking for financial aid to build their own church to which she sent 500 Kroner. In 1903, St. Ansgar Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church was established, with Reverend Peter L. Hansen as the first pastor. Work on the church building began in 1905 and was completed the following year. The 1906 earthquake damaged the sanctuary, but the main floor was still intact.

Peter L. Hansen was still serving as pastor in 1909. Miss Agnes Hansen (presumably Peter's daughter) also resided at 152 Church St. in 1909 and taught piano. Emil Jensen worked as a driver in 1909 and also lived at this address. In 1911, Rev. Anders H. Jensen became the new pastor at St. Ansgar. Rev. Jensen was born in Denmark in 1868 and emigrated to America in 1891; he was ordained a minister in 1898 in a ceremony at Our Savior's Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Church in San Francisco.

During its early years, the area around the church was populated mainly by Scandinavians and Germans and sermons would be delivered in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, and German. Over the years, as English became the common tongue and memories of their homelands faded, the various Lutheran congregations merged. By the time the church celebrated its fifty-year anniversary in 1953, it was called Ansgar Lutheran Church. In 1964, St. Ansgar merged with a Finnish congregation (Gethsemane, at 50 Belcher St., behind St. Ansgar); the new congregation was named in honor of the city's patron saint, Saint Francis Lutheran Church. The former Gethsemane property became a childcare center. The St. Francis Lutheran Church building became a City of San Francisco Landmark in 1971.

In the 1990s, after ordaining a lesbian couple as assistant pastors, the St. Francis congregation was suspended and later expelled from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Openly gay pastors were not allowed at that time unless they swore to remain celibate. After the ECLA made changes to their constitution in 2010, St. Francis was restored back to the ECLA in 2011.

Ansgar Lutheran Church, San Francisco. Golden Jubilee Booklet. San Francisco, CA. Ansgar Lutheran Church, 1953.

Dews, Carlos L. Law, Carolyn Leste. Out in the South. Philadelphia, PA. Temple University Press, 2001.

H. S. Crocker Co. Crocker-Langley San Francisco City Directory for the Year Ending September 1909. San Francisco, CA. H. S. Crocker Co, 1909.

Keifert, Patrick. Testing the Spirits. Grand Rapids, MI. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2009.

Noe Hill. "San Francisco Landmark #39, Saint Francis Lutheran Church." Accessed May 07, 2017. http://noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf039.asp.

St. Francis Lutheran Church. About Us, St. Francis Lutheran Church. Accessed June 9th, 2025. https://sflcsf.org/home/httpssflcsforgabout-us/.

Stensrud, Edward M. The Lutheran Church and California. San Francisco, CA. E. M. Stenrud, 1916.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Francis_Lutheran_Church#/media/File:152_Church_St_-_Saint_Francis_Lutheran_Church_(side).jpg

Stensrud, E. M. The Lutheran Church and California. 1916

Stensrud, E. M. The Lutheran Church and California. 1916