Landmark Status for SF Church Complicates Redevelopment

A former Romanesque Revival church in San Francisco now used as a roller-skating rink has achieved landmark status, limiting a developer’s plans to turn it into homes.

The city’s Board of Supervisors declared the former Sacred Heart Church a local landmark at 554 Fillmore Street, near the Western Addition, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The landmark designation protects many of the interior and exterior architectural features of the 127-year-old church.

Nonetheless, its owner still wants to press ahead with a church-to-home conversion, albeit on a smaller scale, according to Simon Yip, who represents the unidentified landlord. The Sacred Heart complex, which includes the church, rectory, school and convent buildings, is owned by an LLC named after its address, and based in the city, according to a Chronicle database.

Sacred Heart Church, designed by Thomas John Welsh, was built in 1897 for the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco — and survived both the 1906 and 1989 Loma Prieta earthquakes largely unscathed.

The church was shuttered by the archdiocese in 2004, citing the high cost of seismic repairs. A decade later, the Church of 8 Wheels began operating a roller disco beneath its stained glass windows.

The unidentified developer had previously planned to preserve the church exterior, including its soaring campanile and Tuscan columns, while redeveloping its interior into 36 group housing units, with shared kitchens and common areas, plus five stand-alone homes.

And that would have sent the roller-skaters on their way, according to the Chronicle.

But a revised plan, proposed last year, keeps the nave intact for community events — and the Church of 8 Wheels. The rest of the former church complex would include seven stand-alone homes.

Yip said that number could go down to six as the owners go through the permitting process.

Supervisors gave Sacred Heart Church landmark status because Welsh, its architect, designed more than 400 buildings in San Francisco. It was also run by Father Eugene Boyle, its pastor from 1968 to 1972.

Boyle, a prominent civil rights activist, championed Catholic involvement in the Black civil rights movement, fair housing advocacy, the farm labor movement, protest of the Vietnam War and fights against urban renewal.

The building’s owners plan to continue their collaboration with the Church of 8 Wheels, “which means that the church should continue to be a place for beginners and pros alike to put on their skates and groove to disco music under neon lights and stained glass windows,” Supervisor Dean Preston’s office said in a statement.

“This was a team effort that brought together preservationists, the Planning Department, Historic Preservation Commission and the property owners,” Preston said. “I am glad we were able to get it done, and I’m looking forward to the next chapter for this special property.”

— Dana Bartholomew