By Christina Gray
For generations of students, daily recess at St. Vincent de Paul School (SVDP) has meant closing the street outside the urban church and school located in San Francisco’s Cow Hollow neighborhood.
The routine of moving barricades on and off Green Street for a makeshift playground worked for more than 100 years at the urban campus, but is no longer needed. On March 16, the school officially opened an elevated sport court and parking garage with an all-school ceremony attended by the K-8 school’s 231 students, faculty and staff, the pastor, parents, alumni, city officials and the many donors who made it possible.
Foremost among them is the Wall family, who have been part of the parish and school community since the 1920s. The new playground was fittingly named, Wall Court.
“Cut it, cut it, cut it,” chanted students at the end of the hour-long ribbon-cutting festivities that completed a vision dating back decades.
There had always been the dream of providing a green space for the children of SVDP to play, Admissions Director Katie Ryan told Catholic San Francisco. “As the school approached its centennial in 2024, the dream for a protected outdoor play area began to move from vision to reality.”
St. Vincent de Paul School, which opened in 1924, made many improvements over the past 10 years to help it continue its legacy of Catholic education in San Francisco. One dream remained: a playground and more parking. Thanks to school and alumni families (with a leadership gift from the Wall Family) and other donors, nearly $10 million was raised in a centennial capital campaign for the project that broke ground in June 2025. The project moved forward under the direction of Principal Marguerite Pini, Designer Missy Brandon, Archdiocesan Project Lead Steve Bowers, and the Build Group.
Surrounded by wood benches and greenery, Wall Court provides the school with an urban outdoor multipurpose space.
Father Art Albano, St. Vincent de Paul pastor, asked God to bless the contractors and “all who worked on this project carried out with safety, efficiency and in a spirit of unity and collaboration.”
California Assemblywoman Catherine Stefani, District 2, and Stephen Sherrill, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, addressed the gathering.
“So much love and energy and perseverance was poured into this reality,” said Stefani, a former school parent who sat on the school’s advisory board for the project.
Sherrill asked students for a favor. “You deserve this place, this magical place that is just one floor closer to God,” referring to the court’s elevated design above ground level.
Superintendent of Schools Chris Fisher was also on hand to celebrate Wall Court.
“We know that a great Catholic school not only forms our students in the classroom, but through the life they share together through their play, through their teamwork, and through their joy,” he said.
“God is good all the time,” said Principal Pini. The crowd repeated her words with enthusiasm. She described the vision and generosity of generations of school families in building a dedicated playground.
“Those families helped make this project cross the finish line,” said Pini before introducing Cindy Wall Keene, who spoke on behalf of other members of her family in attendance including her brother Brick, their mother Denise, and her husband Kirk.
In 1927, her grandparents were married in the church, she said. During the 1930s, her dad and his four brothers “ran down the same stairs to the kindergarten classroom that you do today.” She and her brothers were also educated at St. Vincent de Paul School.
“Because so many generations played tag, Red Rover, and various games on the street, it means so much to us to see this sports court come to fruition,” she said. “Previous generations invested in all of us by building a church, then a school, and then in 1949, a beautiful new gym. Now we get to pay it forward.”
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(Photos by Chris Barkley)
