{"id":249985,"date":"2026-04-03T11:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/249985\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T11:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:43:08","slug":"the-story-behind-the-giant-stone-cross-hiding-in-golden-gate-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/249985\/","title":{"rendered":"The story behind the giant stone cross hiding in Golden Gate Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you forget to look up, you\u2019ll miss it. Most people do. Despite its towering figure, the 55-foot-high stone cross in\u00a0Golden Gate Park<\/a> evades notice. Standing atop the high hill over Rainbow Falls, it looms over JFK Promenade<\/a>, the car-free thoroughfare popular among joggers and parents with strollers. Cyclists zip down the road without paying the cross any notice. Children don\u2019t spot it, either. Instead, they glue their eyes to the 100-foot long serpent statue<\/a> at the base of the waterfall, which blows bubbles out of its mouth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Some call this landmark the Prayer Book Cross. Others call it Drake\u2019s Cross. When it was unveiled in 1894, it was one of San Francisco\u2019s most prominent landmarks. Newspapers claimed that the monument, built from 68 blocks of sandstone, was the largest cross in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back then, the cross was visible from Point Reyes<\/a>. Today, the Prayer Book Cross is barely visible from within the park, let alone from across the bay. Tall trees partially block it from view.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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For those who do spot it, though, the cross stands out. \u201cLooms\u201d seems to be the right word. Tinted green with moss, the cross contrasts sharply with the colorful Adirondack chairs and murals lining the Golden Mile. Placed alongside Naga the sea serpent, it\u2019s almost Gothic in tone.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Prayer Book Cross in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n

Douglas Zimmerman\/SFGATE\"A<\/p>\n

A Celtic-inspired bolt is part of the Prayer Book Cross in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, seen on March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n

Douglas Zimmerman\/SFGATE<\/p>\n

Once you notice it, it\u2019s hard to stop wondering: What is a giant cross doing in the middle of a public park?\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/p>\n

The Prayer Book Cross viewed through the foliage in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n

Douglas Zimmerman\/SFGATE<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mystery to me is how something so big and that was supposed to be so prominent has gotten so forgotten,\u201d Richard White, a Stanford professor emeritus of American history, told SFGATE.<\/p>\n

An imperfect history<\/p>\n

White has spent some time mulling this mystery over. Back in 2020, during the George Floyd protests, he penned a New York Times op-ed about the cross, titled \u201cThis Monument to White Supremacy Hides in Plain Sight<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0The cross, White explained, pays tribute to Sir Francis Drake, the British explorer and privateer who circumnavigated the world in the 1570s.<\/p>\n

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During his journey, Drake briefly stopped on the West Coast of North America \u2014 possibly somewhere around Point Reyes, although the exact location is uncertain. There, his ship\u2019s chaplain, Francis Fletcher, held the first known Protestant service in North America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Visitors<\/p>\n

Visitors check out the Prayer Book Cross in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n

Douglas Zimmerman\/SFGATE<\/p>\n

In her book \u201cFrom Gold Rush to Millennium: 150 Years of Episcopal Diocese of California 1849-2000,\u201d author Mary Judith Robinson summarizes the chaplain\u2019s written account of the service:\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cFletcher\u2019s chronicle of the event related that the good chaplain read services and celebrated Holy Communion to the amazement of a large group of\u00a0 curious natives gathered at the scene, to whom he \u2018preached the Gospel with much fervency.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The cross, which was built on the suggestion of California\u2019s Episcopal bishop, memorializes this brief event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFIRST CHRISTIAN SERVICE IN THE ENGLISH TONGVE ON OUR COAST,\u201d one of the panels of text carved into the cross reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFIRST USE OF BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER IN OUR COVNTRY,\u201d reads another. (Hence the name \u201cPrayer Book Cross.\u201d The figure of a book, presumably the Book of Common Prayer, is carved above.)<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/p>\n

A detail of some of the writing on the Prayer Book Cross in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, seen on March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n

Douglas Zimmerman\/SFGATE\"Drake<\/p>\n

Drake Cross dedication in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, 1894.<\/p>\n

UC Berkeley Library\/Calisphere<\/p>\n

The Prayer Book Cross was officially unveiled on New Year\u2019s Day, 1894, an event that coincided with the city\u2019s Midwinter Fair event (a World\u2019s Fair). A crowd of a few hundred people gathered around the monument, which was draped in an American flag, and a marching band played a few songs. The historian who had argued that Drake landed in Point Reyes gave a lengthy address, during which he again argued that Drake landed in Point Reyes, and not San Francisco.<\/p>\n

When the flag covering the cross was pulled off, it brought \u201ca rain of chips of stone upon the faces of those staring upward,\u201d according to a San Francisco Examiner reporter in attendance. The paper, writing on the ceremony, declared it \u201cthe largest cross in the world and the most notable construction of stone in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sir Francis Drake was also a slave trader<\/a>. In 2020, as cities reevaluated the names of their streets and schools, the city of Larkspur removed a statue of Drake<\/a>. In San Anselmo, Sir Francis Drake High School announced it would change its name<\/a>. The Prayer Book Cross, meanwhile, seems to have gone unnoticed.<\/p>\n

Drake\u2019s entanglement in the slave trade and colonialism is part of the cross\u2019s problem. But according to White, the issue runs deeper. \u201cWhat makes it problematic now has actually very little to do with why it\u2019s there,\u201d he told SFGATE.<\/p>\n

When it was first erected, the cross was an attempt to rewrite California\u2019s history, according to White. California was first colonized by the Spanish, who converted Indigenous people to Catholicism under the violent mission system. The Prayer Book Cross, meanwhile, in its celebration of Drake\u2019s brief, relatively insignificant stop on the coast, makes the case that from its initial \u201cdiscovery,\u201d California was Anglo-Saxon and Protestant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo, what the Episcopalians try to do is say this is the beginning of white California,\u201d White said. \u201cThis is the first white man to show up in California, and it\u2019s the first time that Christianity comes to California, hence the cross.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 1890s, San Francisco was already a city of immigrants. White said the cross is meant to argue San Francisco was white and Protestant, as opposed to Chinese, Irish, Catholic, Mexican or Indigenous.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Visitors<\/p>\n

Visitors check out the Prayer Book Cross in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n

Douglas Zimmerman\/SFGATE\"A<\/p>\n

A couple walks up a trail to view the Prayer Book Cross in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n

Douglas Zimmerman\/SFGATE<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018We\u2019re the Americans, these people aren\u2019t.\u2019 That\u2019s what the cross is meant to commemorate,\u201d White said. \u201cThat\u2019s the simplest way I can put it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Asked for a response to White\u2019s article, Daniel Montes, communications manager for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, shared a statement via email.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs stewards of our city\u2019s parks and public spaces, we are committed to creating beautiful, inviting places that spark joy, strengthen connection, and foster civic pride,\u201d Montes wrote.\u00a0\u201cParks are living spaces that evolve over time. As our understanding and values grow, names and features may be updated to better reflect who we are today\u2014as seen with Blue Heron Lake and Presidio Wall. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that everyone feels welcome in our parks.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Christopher Pollock, the historian-in-residence for the department, the cross was a gift from George Childs, a Philadelphia philanthropist and newspaper publisher. Childs, a friend of California\u2019s Episcopalian bishop, spent $10,000 on the cross.<\/p>\n

The cross was originally planned to be placed in Drake\u2019s Bay in Point Reyes, which is likely closer to the spot Drake actually landed. But according to an 1893 San Francisco Chronicle article, \u201ca number of gentlemen\u201d lobbied the city to find a place for it in Golden Gate Park.<\/p>\n

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Fading from view<\/p>\n

Episcopalians held services at the cross for a number of years afterward, Pollock noted. In the early 1950s, there was an annual pilgrimage to the cross, although it\u2019s unclear when this celebration petered out. In his notes, Pollock mentioned a 1960 gathering that drew 200 to the cross.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Prayer Book Cross viewed through the foliage in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n

Douglas Zimmerman\/SFGATE\"A<\/p>\n

A nest of hornets is visible on a piece of the Prayer Book Cross in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n

Douglas Zimmerman\/SFGATE<\/p>\n

To fully appreciate the strangeness of the Prayer Book Cross, consider the story of San Francisco\u2019s other landmark cross, the Mount\u00a0Davidson Cross<\/a>. Like the Prayer Book Cross, the Mount\u00a0Davidson Cross is tall, standing at 103 feet. And like the Prayer Book Cross, it sits on public land.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Or it used to, anyway. In 1990, the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Jewish Congress, among others, sued the city<\/a> over the Mount Davidson Cross. The groups argued that the cross\u2019s presence on public land was unconstitutional, and after a lengthy legal battle, San Francisco was forced to sell the 0.38-acre parcel of land on which the cross stands. In 1997, an Armenian American group purchased the cross for $26,000, and rededicated it to memorialize the\u00a0Armenian genocide.<\/p>\n

In light of this series of events, some have wondered why the Prayer Book Cross<\/a> eludes the same scrutiny.\u00a0Unlike the Mount\u00a0Davidson Cross, the Prayer Book Cross remains uncontroversial. After all, how can a landmark be controversial if barely anybody looks at it?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, millions of people go past it every year and never even see it,\u201d White said. \u201cAnd when they do see it, they have no idea what it\u2019s about.\u201d<\/p>\n

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