click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
I belong to the Church-of-the-Gooey-Death, and since our congregation is rather small I have to wear many hats -- deacon and elder, choir director, usher, the guy who rings the bells, and sometimes our congregation even lets me guard the holy water.
So, I was in an ecumenical and inter-faith mood when I made the steep climb up to Old St. Hillary's just above the up-scale San Francisco Bay town of Tiburon. I was all set to compare notes with the Padre about the modern-day problems of being a religious leader, but alas, no Padre was anywhere to be found.
click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
Old St. Hillary's was built in 1888, primarily to serve Catholic railroad workers that lived in the area. Tiburon was an important rail-head where freight cars were loaded onto barges and floated across the bay to San Francisco.
click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
I understand that the style of architecture is called "carpenter gothic", and the church has undergone a few restorations over the years. It was not until 1960 that indoor plumbing arrived at St. Hillary's -- they now use the old privy out back for storage.
This bell was originally installed in 1911 and must have made a resounding noise in the bowl-shaped canyon that leads down the steep hill towards town. Sadly, at the Church-of-the-Gooey-Death we don't have a bell -- all we have is a buzzer.
CLICK to watch a very nice little video on the history of Old St. Hillary's.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.
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