PRESERVATION of HISTORY AND ART


​In 1886, the Garrison Chapel, still intact alongside the Officers’ Club in the Presidio today, was built by the United States Army to accommodate various religious services for military personnel and their families. The United States military is the world’s only community to have systematically built interfaith sanctuaries to serve the needs of multiple faith congregations in the same building.
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​Art has always been an important part of the Chapel’s appeal. Two artistic masterpieces, both completed in 1935, grace the Chapel. Thanks to the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Chapel has a fresco mural, The Peacetime Activities of the Army, by Victor Arnautoff, a student of Diego Rivera, located in what is now an enclosed reception area. Scenes depicting the Presidio’s rich history surround Saint Francisco who is portrayed in the center of the fresco. The second masterpiece is the collection of 11 stained glass windows honoring the virtues of military character by Willemina Ogterop, the first woman west of the Mississippi to be inducted into the stained-glass artists’ union. These works of art have attracted art preservationists as well as the general public and neighbors in upscale Presidio Heights.  
Unable to adequately accommodate growing needs for worship by the early 1930s, Protestant and Jewish congregations moved to what became known as the Presidio Chapel at the Presidio of San Francisco.
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The Presidio Chapel, completed in 1931, is an outstanding example of the Spanish Colonial Revival style and is beautifully perched on a wooded slope overlooking San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the San Francisco Bay. It is a “Significant Contributing Structure” in the National Landmark District of the Presidio. The Presidio Chapel is a military post chapel, adjacent to the San Francisco National Cemetery, which holds the mortal remains of war dead from the Civil War through the late-19th Century Indian Wars, Spanish American War, Pershing’s expeditions against Pancho Villa, World Wars I and II, Korea, and Vietnam. 

The sanctuary walls are lined with plaques memorializing former Presidio army soldiers and occasionally their family members. In addition, an outdoor monument to military chaplains, another dedicated to Vietnam Veterans (the first ever in a military installation), and additional outdoor memorial plaques all testify to the site’s military history and keep those memories alive.
Chaplin Memorial Dedication