Glide Memorial Church

1. 1929

   Lizzie Glide, the widow of a Central Valley cattle and land baron, bought this L-shaped corner lot with money from oil leases to build a church and evangelistic centre in the middle of downtown's hotels and apartment houses, and set up the Glide Foundation to support it.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
2. 1930

   Built by Monson Brothers.

3. 1930

   Built as storefronts remodeled, to the design of the architect James W. Plachek. Six storeys over a basement, reinforced concrete structure with stucco and terra cotta facade, three-part vertical composition, Italian Renaissance style.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
4. January 11, 1931

   Glide Memorial Church was dedicated free of debt: a Mediterranean Revival church joined to a six-storey apartment hotel for working women, designed by James W. Plachek — chosen when Lizzie Glide and Julia Morgan disagreed over Morgan's proposal — and built by Monson Brothers on a bid of $304,860. A revolving neon cross turned on the south tower, and Deagan chimes in the north tower played hymns twice a day.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
5. 1934

   Lee's Café was running in the ground-floor shop of the apartment building; a café or coffee shop stayed there until 1955.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
6. 1962

   The Glide Foundation established the Glide Urban Center here in 1962, a community organising centre operating out of Glide Memorial Church; it later housed the offices and symposia of the Council on Religion and the Homosexual.

   Donna J. Graves and Shayne E. Watson, Citywide Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco, San Francisco Planning Department, adopted by the Historic Preservation Commission November 18, 2015
7. 1964

   Glide Memorial Methodist Church helped create the Council on Religion and the Homosexual in 1964, after opening a dialogue with the city's homosexual activists about the young hustlers of the Tenderloin. The Council devoted itself to combating homophobia inside mainline churches.

   Damon Scott for the Friends of 1800, Sexing the City: The Development of Sexual Identity Based Subcultures in San Francisco, 1933–1979, historic context statement, San Francisco Planning Department, adopted 2004
8. 1964

   The Reverend Cecil Williams arrived at Glide, whose congregation had fallen to 35, and over the following years turned it into the Tenderloin's open-door church, replacing the cross behind the altar with projected images of the neighbourhood's people.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
9. 1965

   The Council on Religion and the Homosexual, headquartered at the Glide Urban Center, held its first Candidates' Night here, a town-hall meeting on police misconduct and gay concerns — the first time the gay vote was courted in San Francisco.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
10. 1966

    Renovation of Glide Memorial Church by architect Beverly Willis.

    Architecture, Planning & Preservation Professionals: A Collection of Biographies, adopted 2021
11. 1967

    Glide Memorial Methodist Church hosted a conference on alternatives to the draft, one of several counterculture-era events and services the church was associated with.

    Donna Graves for San Francisco Heritage, Citywide Historic Context Statement for Counterculture (1965–1975), San Francisco Planning Department, adopted 17 July 2024
12. 1968

    Glide began serving free meals — at first a Monday-night potluck for fifty cooked at volunteers' homes — the start of a programme that expanded in 1981, at Mayor Dianne Feinstein's request, to three meals a day, seven days a week. The National Sex and Drug Forum was founded at the Glide Urban Center the same year.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
13. 1970

    Glide was the national headquarters of the Committee United for Political Prisoners, founded by the Black Panther Party, with Cecil Williams as national chairman.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
14. Feb 1982

    Permit 8200745 $$$ $4,000

    Additions alterations or repairs.

15. Jun 1985

    Permit 8506567 $$$ $36,000

    Remodelling the existing kitchen and coffee room work.

16. Aug 1985

    Permit 8508949 $$$ $9,200

    Install hood, duct work for exhaust, fresh air, fire system.

17. Mar 1989

    Permit 8904469 $$$ $55,000

    Creat a kitchen in an existing basement dining room.

18. April 1989

    Glide held the country's first national conference on the crack cocaine epidemic, The Death of a Race, attended by nearly 2,000 people, with Coretta Scott King and Maya Angelou among the speakers.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
19. Jun 1989

    Issued Permit 8910055 $$$ $73,200

    Reroofing.

20. Sep 1995

    Permit 9515839 $$$ $240,000

    Repair dishwashing rm, freight elev. provide hc bathrms, vent.

21. May 2000

    Approved Permit 200005038919 $$$ $30,000

    Remove/replace topping of existing sidewalk.

22. May 2000

    Permit 200005059176 $$$ $30,000

    Remove existing damaged walk & add new two and a half topping to existing sidewalk to match existing.

23. Feb 2001

    Permit 200102283149 $$$ $120,000

    Remodel existing floor prep area at lower level. remove existing non complying ramp & replace with n.

24. Sep 2006

    Permit 200609142344 $$$ $9,305

    Install new facu on the 1st floor to monitor new fire alarm devices on the 6th floor. equipment on 1st floor through 5 and the basement are to remain as is and will remain connected to the existing local facu.complaint #200232951 bid-insp.

25. Oct 2009

    Permit 200910028200 $$$ $150,000

    Addition of 1 ada compliant restroom to 5th floor. conversion of 1 existing restroom to 2 ada compliant restrooms on 5th floor. barrier removal only.

26. Oct 2010

    Issued Permit 201010293979 $$$ $5,000

    Demolition of interior non-load bearing partitions on fifth floor. soft demolition per sfbc ab-017.

27. Jun 2011

    Issued Permit 201106208431 $$$ $115,000

    5th floor - interior storefront partitions & casework, new flooring.

28. Dec 2011

    Permit 201112271319 $$$ $60,000

    Replace existing devices to complete the fire alarm upgrade.

29. Sep 2020

    Issued Permit 202009295441 $$$ $32,217

    Like for like replacement of an existing fire alarm system to allow to provide service. ref permit application 201111271319.

30. March 18, 2022

    Listed on the National Register of Historic Places for Glide's social-justice ministry in the Tenderloin — its LGBTQ, civil-rights, anti-poverty and prison-reform work — and as a work of James W. Plachek.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
31. 2024

    Glide Memorial United Methodist Church is listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places for its social history, African American and Asian American heritage and its architecture, and is a contributing building in a district. Identified in 2024 as eligible for city landmark designation as well.

    African American Citywide Historic Context Statement, adopted 2024
32. Feb 2024

    Issued Permit 202402206130 $$$ $13,000

    Replacement of the existing railings at existing metal staircase. back side of building.

33. Feb 2024

    Issued Permit 202402236450 $$$ $13,000

    Revision to permit application 202402206130, replacement to existing metal staircase in back of building.

34. Sep 2025

    Permit 202509246029 $$$ $80,000

    Reroofing patch job. no torch down remove existing terra cotta tile and replace in same place after reroofing. using same tile and replacing where needed.

DBI holds 44 permits for this parcel, most of them tenant improvements on individual floors. The timeline shows the 24 largest by stated cost, plus the earliest on file; the DBI query in the sources below returns all 44. 2 of them are nominal $1 street-space or sidewalk permits. 7 expired or cancelled permits are not shown. Sources differ on when Glide Memorial Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places: 18 March 2022, or 2024.