The present St. Andrew grew out of the non-denominational community church established by the families who worked in the shipyards of Sausalito and lived in nearby Marin City during World War II. Ties with the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo. eventually led to the formation of the First Presbyterian Church of Marin City which was chartered on January 8, 1956.

From 1956 until 1963, the congregation was served by student supply teams from the seminary.  In 1963, with financial support from the denomination, the church was able to call its first full-time minister, the Rev. Donald H. Schilling.  A year and a half later. the Rev. James E. Symons was called to serve as co-pastor with Rev. Schilling.  It was during this time that our name was changed to St. Andrew Presbyterian Church.  Services were held in the Marin City Community Lounge.

The congregation which called Rev. Schilling was predominantly African American and reflected the population of Marin City itself.  During the war Marin City had been an integrated community with most of residents living in temporary housing provided for shipyard workers.  When the war ended, white families tended to move out of the community, some return to the various parts of the country from which they had come and some to other areas of the Bay Area.  The black residents were largely unable either to buy or rent housing outside of Marin City.

The call to Rev. Symons was an intentional effort to reach out to the white communities surrounding Marin City and turn the small church once again into a truly multiracial and multicultural congregation.  And the effort, made with denominational support, was successful.  Amidst a national background of civil rights activities, white families were attracted to the opportunity to worship in an integrated setting.

In May of 1965, again with help from the denomination, St. Andrew held the ground breaking for its first building at the corner of Drake and Donahue Avenues.  The congregation moved into its new sanctuary in December of that year and held its dedication service in January of 1966.

For the next thirty years the church stood as a landmark at the entrance to Marin City, and its buildings and facilities were used not only for congregational worship but also by, among other things, a nursery school, a one-on-one mentoring program for at-risk youth, a community garden and many other community programs and services.

But the 1990s brought redevelopment to Marin City, and the church stood on land which was wanted for other uses.  Ultimately a deal was negotiated to provide the church with land across the street and funds to erect a new building in return for our original site.  In September 1995, our final service was held in the old church.  Following worship the congregation crossed the street to dedicate the site where the new building would rise.  We returned to the old church for a wonderful feast and then proceeded with all our banners to form a procession to progress to the Marin City Senior Center where we would hold services for the following three years.

During the years in the Senior Center the Rev. Veronica Goines was called as the new pastor of St. Andrew.  Her ordination and installation service was held on November 24, 1996 at the San Rafael First Presbyterian Church.  The following year we finally held the ground-breaking at the new church site on September 13, 1997.

As we all watched expectantly, the present sanctuary slowly rose on the corner of Drake and Donahue Avenues.  An unusually rainy winter season slowed the construction, but our Building Committee and the builders persevered. Finally, on July 19, 1998, we gathered at the Senior Center and singing  We've Come this Far by Faith, we marched with our banner to the new building, thus completing the round trip we had begun three years before.

We trooped into the new sanctuary, grateful for its air conditioning as it was a very warm day.  Before beginning our Morning Worship Service, our pastor asked us to face east, west, north and south as we invoked God's blessing on our new site and dedicated ourselves to spread our mission beyond our new walls to the community and world beyond.

A service of dedication was held on September 13th, exactly one year to the day after the ground-breaking ceremonies.  It was attended by friends and members of St. Andrew, as well as representatives of the Presbytery of the Redwoods and former pastors of our congregation.  It concluded with a celebratory feast in our new Fellowship Hall.

Our church has continued to grow and evolve.  As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, our Jubilee year, many old faces are gone, but many new ones have joined us.  Of our present active membership, 65% have joined in the eleven years since we left the old building, and only two of the original charter members who began that small congregation in 1956 are still on our rolls.  But the mission and dreams of the forty-one original charter members are alive and well as we celebrate fifty years of praising God and serving the community as a multicultural church family.