Swedenborgian Church

Radical ideals in the form of distinctive buildings make beloved SF landmarks; this standout 1894 example is the collaborative effort of 19th-century Bay Area progressive thinkers, such as naturalist John Muir, California Arts and Crafts leader Bernard Maybeck and architect Arthur Page Brown. Church founder Emanuel Swedenborg was an 18th-century Swedish theologian, a scientist and an occasional conversationalist with angels, who believed that humans are spirits in a material world unified by nature, love and luminous intelligence – a lovely concept, embodied in an even lovelier building. Enter the church through a modest brick archway, and pass into a garden sheltered by trees from around the world. Inside, nature is everywhere, in the hewn-maple chairs, mighty madrone trees that support the roof, and the scenes of Northern California that took muralist William Keith 40 years to complete.