Our local church history starts back in 1859 when Merritt G. Kellogg (the brother of Will K. Kellogg, the famous breakfast food pioneer of Kellogg Corn Flake fame) traveled to the bustling city of San Francisco in a small wagon train. As a Sabbath-keeping Adventist, Kellogg organized a small group of thirteen people in his living room for weekly services. Unfortunately, the Civil War years were hard on the group. The members became discouraged and some moved away.
Undaunted, Mr. Kellogg raised $133 to hire a minister for them. No pastor wanted to come all the way to San Francisco, but Mr. Kellogg kept searching for several months until finally J.N. Loughborough and D.T. Bourdeau answered the call to come to San Francisco in 1867. Although Elder Bourdeau left within a year, Elder Loughborough ended up working in California for nearly 50 years; and might be considered, along with Mr. Kellogg, a founder of Central Church.
(That’s why we named our Fellowship Hall the Loughborough Center, even though most people can’t pronounce “Loughborough” correctly. Kellogg Center would have been so much easier!) It was too expensive to pitch a tent to hold meetings to share the Gospel and Bible teachings with those living in San Francisco, so they said, “Hey, let’s go north to Sonoma County to hold our meetings.” Their hard work paid off as they were able to establish half a dozen congregations in the area over the next two years, with Petaluma becoming the first organized Seventh-day Adventist church in California.
In December 1873, James and Ellen White returned, attracted to California as a promising field. Ellen White spoke in favor of making Oakland the center for the work in California. The Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association, later called Pacific Press Publishing Association was set up there, and publication of a new periodical, Signs of the Times, began in 1874. The Whites invested personally in these new ventures. “We went over the same ground in California, selling all our goods to start a printing press on the Pacific Coast,” wrote Ellen in 1899. “We knew that every foot of ground over which we traveled to establish the work would be at great sacrifice to our own financial interests.” Later she recounted, “Believers were few in number, and we needed much courage and much faith to brace us for the work.”
James and Ellen White visited the small group still meeting in Mr. Kellogg’s living room in San Francisco. They were so impressed with their dedication and the need for a church building that the Whites sold their house in Battle Creek, Michigan, and advanced $6,000 (more than $150,000 today) to help build a church at 914 Laguna Street. This generous act by the White's encouraged the people worshiping together in Mr. Kellogg's living room to make sacrifices of their own.
Elder Loughborough records what happened when believers moved forward in faith despite the appearances: “On April 14, 1875, the leading members of the San Francisco church met at the home of Sister J. L. James, and Sister White related to us what had been shown her in vision. She stated that San Francisco would always be a mission field, and urged upon us the importance of erecting a house of worship. It would look to that poor church like a move in the dark, but if they moved out as the providence of God opened the way, the cost would be entirely met. Knowing as I did the financial condition of these members, to build a church 35 x 80, where a lot alone cost $6,000, looked indeed like a ‘leap in the dark.’
“But we found a lot on Laguna Street for $4,000. Then one sister promised $1,000 if she could sell her place, and within two weeks she sold it for $1,000 above the price she had valued it. A brother who could not see how a church could be built said, ‘If the Lord says it must be done, He will open the way.’ Soon he received $20,000 from an estate settlement and gave $1,000. The church was erected for $14,000 (more than $360,000 today), including the price of the lot, over half of which was paid for before it was finished.”
August, 1930
Eventually, the congregation outgrew the Laguna Street Church, and on March 15, 1927, 55 years after James and Ellen helped build the first Adventist Church in San Francisco, and the Church Board voted to purchase the Methodist Church at the corner of California and Broderick Streets. This is the current building where we now worship.
This church was built in 1892 by shipbuilders who worked on it in the "off-season," and was solid enough to withstand the 1906 earthquake. Although part of the church tower was toppled by the lesser quake of 1957, Central Church came through the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake largely unscathed.
Many people who are impressed with the beauty of our church aren’t aware that Central Church has such a grand history to go with it and that there's a piece of that history in our 
sanctuary. Our sanctuary pulpit is a hand-carved walnut lectern that was used for many years at the Laguna Street Church by J.N. Loughborough, James White, Ellen White, D.M. Canright, and other Adventist pioneers that preached in San Francisco. Though Ellen White never spoke at our current location, as she passed to her rest in 1915 (twelve years before this building was purchased), we still appreciate the connection that our pulpit gives us with those early Adventist pioneers, leaders, and missionaries who willingly experienced many hardships in order to bring the gospel truth to San Francisco so many years ago.
