H26.960

Glass plate negative of Mayor Plater's home. Located at 13th and Castro Streets, Oakland; Baptist church in background. Print made by Oakland Tribune 2/15/52; (On envelope) "Charles Taylor Collection, view of Mayor Plater's home and church" Per Annalee Allen in the Montclarion, 1-24-95: The First Baptist Church in Oakland came together for worship in 1854. Julia Morgan attended Sunday school in the wood-framed Gothic style church at 14th and Brush, "which photo files indicate was large and comfortable, in the Queen Anne style." "In 1902, as Morgan was completing her studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, her childhood church burned to the ground, leaving the congregation to gather in temporary quarters at the YMCA at 12th and Clay streets and later the Masonic Hall at 12th and Washington streets. According to church history, proceeds from the insurance settlement after the fire and sale of the lot, enabled the congregation to move to Telegraph Avenue and Jones Street. The new building was modeled after a Baptist Church in Spokane, Washinton. Church leaders turned to Morgan to design the sanctuary. Another setback occurred when the 1906 earthquake caused damage to the towers, but the church managed to survive. The interior is notable not only for the lovely windows and grand organ ...but for the breathtaking octagonal redwood ceiling...massive curved molded brackets that feature carved rosettes at the outer tip. Perforated trefoil circles (a motif Morgan would become noted for) fill the brackets. Steel shafts are concealed in the wood members." Morgan was still teaching Sunday School classes when she designed the sanctuary.