Hidden in the small town of Portola Valley you can find the Our Lady of the Wayside Church where this is the entrance of. Built in 1912, Our Lady of the Wayside was designed by native San Francisco architect Timothy L. Pflueger (1892-1946) and built when he was only twenty years old! An awareness of the Spanish California missions inspired the style, which contrasts with the large commercial buildings and art deco theaters for which Pflueger later became notable.
In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake literally shook the church building to its foundations. Due to obvious structural damage, the Archdiocese was forced to close the church immediately. The structural engineers who assessed the severity of the damage and strongly recommended tearing down the existing building and replacing it with a new structure. A lot of the damage resulted from the very poor concrete used in the original construction. The parish community felt otherwise; for instead it raised $600,000 required to retrofit and repair this beloved church.
(Photo was taken less than an hour before I posted this)
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