St. Peter Church Throughout 50 Years

Catholics along the Pacific Coast of the 1930’s wanted Mass celebrated closer to home than driving to Colma each Sunday. James Troglio offered his Rockaway Beach dance hall to the residents for use as a Catholic Church. The dance hall building soon became known as the Rockaway Church and Mass was celebrated there regularly until 1955.

At that time the Archdiocese purchased a home on Adobe Road, removed the garage and built a small chapel which was dedicated on March 18, 1956 and the parish of Saint Peter was formally established on June 25, 1956 by Archbishop Mitty.

Late in 1958, the pastor of the parish negotiated the purchase of the parcel of land where the current parish resides and the Church in the Round was built and by 1964 was in full use, drawing attention as an architectural masterpiece.

A roof that leaked caused deterioration of the church building until in 1976 it was declared unsafe but the loss of the building simply meant that the parishioners moved into the religious education center for everything and Mass was eventually celebrated in the multi-purpose building. In July 1980, the Church in the Round was completely dismantled.

On January 29, 1989, the parish witnessed the breaking of ground for a new church building and on May 12, 1990, the current church was dedicated.