Old Saint Mary's Cathedral

Old Saint Mary's Cathedral stands out at the corner of California Street and Grant Avenue with a tower clock that features a blunt, moral warning inscribed directly beneath its face. The words, "Son, Observe the Time and Fly from Evil," were placed there in eighteen fifty-seven, shortly after the cathedral’s completion. At the time, the church sat near the edge of the city’s most notorious red-light districts, and the message served as a direct admonition to the men heading toward the brothels nearby.