Home base of a neighborhood
In North Beach, along the edge of Washington Square, stands Saints Peter and Paul Church. Notable for its twin towers, it was built in 1912 as an outpost for the Salesians, of the Society of Saint Francis de Sales, founded by Saint John Bosco in the 19th century. Bosco’s motto was “Give me souls, you can have the rest.”
The “rest” were the hearts and minds of immigrants who made their way across America and gave North Beach neighborhoods their Italian identities. At the center of these communities has always been Saints Peter and Paul, which includes a school but is perhaps best known for its Salesian Boys’ and Girls’ Club. The club has always attracted the children of the city’s great Italian families, and also has a cherished reputation for its sports teams, particularly baseball.
Info
Address 666 Filbert Street, San Francisco, CA, 94133, sspeterpaulsf.org/church | Public Transport Bus: 8X, 41, 45 (Columbus Ave & Union St stop); 30 (Columbus Ave & Filbert St stop) | Hours Daily 7am–6pm| Tip A warm green onion focaccia sandwich is a must at Mario Bohemian Cigar Store Café, just across the park on the corner of Union and Green Streets.
Among the church’s early parishioners was a Sicilian fisherman and his wife, the DiMaggios, whose son Joe could hit baseballs to the moon. He would go on to become the “Yankee Clipper”—one of the greatest players who ever lived. In 1939, he married his first wife, Dorothy Arnold, at the church. She was the sultry-eyed heroine of the B-movie classic The Phantom Creeps. They divorced in 1944.
Joe’s second wife was Hollywood bombshell Marilyn Monroe. By one account DiMaggio had hoped to wed Monroe at Saints Peter and Paul but was denied by Catholic doctrine. After their civil ceremony they returned to the church’s steps to take photos as newlyweds. Years later, in 1999, DiMaggio’s funeral was held there.
The turn-of-the-century church was also a setting in Richard Brautigan’s 1967 novel Trout Fishing in America, and in the 1971 movie Dirty Harry, with Clint Eastwood. On the first Sunday of October, a procession from Saints Peter and Paul to the Fisherman’s Wharf celebrates an old Sicilian tradition: the Blessing of the Fishing Fleet.
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