*Location:

   North Tower
   Grace Cathedral (Episcopal)
   Taylor Street at California Street
   San Francisco, California, USA
   LL: N 37.79198, W 122.41304

   Tower of the Sun
   Golden Gate Exposition

Site locator map

*Player:

   John Fenstermaker
   T: 415-776-6611

*Contact:

   Grace Cathedral
   1051 Taylor Street
   San Francisco, CA  94108-2209
   T: 415-745-6300   F: 415-745-6301
   E: congregation@gracecathedral.org

*Schedule:

   (unknown)

*Technical data:

   Electric-keyboard carillon of 44 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell (excluding sub-bourdon) is C  in the middle octave
   Keyboard range: (G) C G   /    NONE  
   Transposition is nil (concert pitch)
   There is one missing bass semitone
   There is no practice console
   The whole instrument was installed in 1943
     with bells made by Gillett & Johnston 
   Auxiliary mechanisms: EnO   
   Tower details not available
   Year of latest technical information source is 1971

The Cathedral Website has an evening photo of the façade on the home page, and includes a virtual tour of the building with a view from the fléche; you can see part of carillon in the belfry (if you have QuickTime installed).  Elsewhere you can find a night photo taken in 1943, when the tower was complete but the adjoining nave was not.

A photo (82KB) of the bell tower from the west

A photo of the building and its twin towers accompanies the report of a visitor; the frame of the carillon is clearly visible in the north (right) tower belfry.

Waymarking page, 4 photos

Wikipedia article, with 3 photos

Where this work lies in the sequence of output of the Gillett & Johnston bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.

Ranking among all North American non-traditional carillons by weight.
Ranking among all North American non-traditional carillons by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all North American non-traditional carillons by year of completion.

The sub-bourdon of this carillon is among all great bells in North America.

Index to all tower bell instruments in CA.

   This page was built from the database on  2-Mar-25
   based on textual data last updated on 2025/01/15
   and on technical data last updated on 1975/07/20