The Founding of Saint Ignatius Academy

The University of San Francisco began as a one-room schoolhouse named Saint Ignatius Academy. Our institution’s founding president was Fr. Anthony Maraschi, a Jesuit from northern Italy, who was teaching “mental philosophy” at Loyola College, Baltimore, when the order reached him in 1854 to depart for California’s distant shores. When Fr. Maraschi arrived in San Francisco, he applied for and received permission from Archbishop Joseph Alemany to build a Jesuit church and school. When Fr. Maraschi asked the archbishop to designate a spot, his Grace pointed to a stretch of sand dunes west of the then-central part of San Francisco and, with a sweep of his hand toward the unoccupied land, said “any place over there.” Fr. Maraschi chose a few sand dunes on the south side of Market Street, between Fourth and Fifth Streets, and proclaimed “Here, in time, will be the heart of a great city.” Fr. Maraschi borrowed $11,500 and purchased a lot (127 by 275 feet) from Thomas O. Larkin, the first American Consul in Monterey. On this lot, Fr. Maraschi built a church, a Jesuit residence, and a wooden frame building about 26 feet long by 16 feet wide, the first home of Saint Ignatius Academy. On October 15, 1855, the school opened its doors to its first class, which numbered three students. A plaque in the wall of the old Emporium building on the south side of Market Street between Fourth and Fifth marks that first home of our institution. In testimony to the economic foresight of Fr.Maraschi, the Jesuits sold this original piece of property in 1886 for $900,000—a tidy profit over its original sale price.

St. Ignatius College moved to two other locations in San Francisco (to be described in future vignettes) before moving to its current Fulton Street location in 1927. In 2002, the University of San Francisco’s main campus occupies 55 acres near Golden Gate Park. Parts of the campus extend west to Stanyon Boulevard, east to Masonic Avenue, north to Anza Street, and south across Fulton Street. In addition, USF offers classes at five Northern California regional campuses, in Oakland, Santa Rosa, San Ramon, Cupertino, and Sacramento; at a Southern California regional campus in the city of Orange; and at a site in Phoenix, Arizona. USF has sponsored and cooperative study-abroad programs throughout the world, including programs in Mexico, Chile, Japan, China, the Philippines, England, Spain, Italy, Hungary, El Salvador, and South Africa. Our institution has grown dramatically since its modest beginning in 1855.



Bibliographic note: The founding of Saint Ignatius Academy is described in The First Half Century: St Ignatius Church and College by Joseph Riordan, S.J., and in Jesuits by the Golden Gate: The Society of Jesus in San Francisco, 1849–1969 by John McGloin, S.J. Michael Kotlanger, S.J., USF’s archivist, also supplied several important details about the origins of our institution.