Jane Stanford commissioned Stanford Memorial Church as a memorial to her husband, Leland Stanford. Henry Hobson Richardson produced the original designs in 1886, and after his death his student Charles A. Coolidge completed them. Construction began in January 1900, and the church was dedicated on January 25, 1903. It stands at the center of the Main Quad and is Romanesque in form and Byzantine in detail.
The Salviati studios made the mosaics from designs by Antonio Paoletti. The exterior facade mosaic was the largest in the United States when completed. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake toppled the 80-foot spire and ruined the mosaics, and the church stayed closed until 1913. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake closed it again until its rededication in 1992.
It is a non-denominational house of worship.
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