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All the United States California Sunol-Midtown Sunol Water Temple

Sunol Water Temple

A Roman-inspired temple once controlled half of San Francisco's waters.

Sunol-Midtown, California

Added By
Annetta Black
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  Annetta Black/Atlas Obscura
Architect Willis Polk   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wpolk2.jpg
The Temple of Vesta, Italy   http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pir...
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  Annetta Black/Atlas Obscura
1922 Map showing Sunol Water Temple  
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About

Built between 1906-1910, the little Sunol Water Temple sits atop the spot where three local water sources converge, once providing half of the water of the city of San Francisco.

Architect Willis Polk designed the temple after the beautiful Roman ruins of the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy where much of ancient Rome's waters flowed. Graceful columns rise up, surrounding a central cistern, topped with a domed ceiling decorated with Roman-inspired images of Indian maidens. The stones around the top of the temple are inscribed with water-themed Biblical passages "I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry lands springs of water" and "The streams whereof shall make glad the city."

The construction of the Hetch Hetchy Aquaduct in 1932 rendered the Sunol waters obsolete, and inspired the building of the Bay Area's other classically inspired water temple, the Pulgas Water Temple in Redwood City.

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Water Temples Water Architectural Oddities Architecture

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Added By

Annetta Black

Edited By

MadeByKemo

  • MadeByKemo

Published

March 14, 2012

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  • http://www.verlang.com/sfbay0004ref_wp_5.html#niles_canyon_pleasanton-sonol_paloma
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunol_Water_Temple
Sunol Water Temple
End of Paloma Way
Sunol-Midtown, California, 94586
United States
37.585473, -121.885484
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Photo of California

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