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In 1867, the Reverend Joseph Worcester came to San Francisco from Boston, where his father, the Reverend
Thomas Worcester, had founded the New Jerusalem Church, based on the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
Worcester's first congregation worshipped in Druids Hall on Sutter Street, but in 1894 he participated
in the planning of the present Swedenborgian Church of the New Jerusalem, 2107 Lyon Street.
The church is based on Bruce Porter's sketches of an Italian village church in the Po Valley near Verona....
The actual architectural drawings (from Porter's sketches) were done by a young man named Bernard
Maybeck in the firm of A. Page Brown.
The church was completed in 1895, and reflects the Swedenborgians' central theme, presenting natural
objects and incorporating them into the structure and grounds. A heavy tile roof, for example, is supported by
massive bark-covered madrone logs. The sturdy maple chairs used for worship were made by hand, without
the use of nails, and their seats were woven of tule rushes from the Sacramento River Delta. The walled
gardens are symbolic; each detail was selected for its international or universal significance....
From Here Today: San Francisco's Architectural Heritage, Chronicle Books, Fifth Printing, November 1969
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