Old St. Mary's was designed by architects William Craine and Thomas England, who followed the instructions of the church's Bishop, Joseph Sadoc Alemany, to replicate a cathedral in his hometown of Vich, Spain. The new cathedral, built mostly with Chinese labor, had parapets on either flank, surmounted with embrasures and buttresses finished cut-stone pinnacles. Inside, a vaulted ceiling with groin arches rises above a Carrara marble altar imported from Rome.
The original plan included a steeple, but fear that an earthquake would send it toppling into the street led the designers to change the plans, leaving only a bell tower.
Granite, quarried in China, was used around the base of the structure to deflect rainwater, while bricks minted in New England for the outer walls came around Cape Horn as ship ballast.
In keeping with its tradition of community involvement, the church is home to several Twelve-Step groups and a vibrant gay and lesbian ministry, and holds a regular Saturday for Engaged Couples, a one-day, all-day series of presentations focusing the engaged couples' attention on the meaning of marriage from a Roman Catholic perspective.
