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From a sign nearby, explaining the Sunol Water Temple:
The 1910 Sunol Water Temple memorializes the convergence of three sources of water - Alameda Creek, the Arroyo de le Laguna, and the Pleasanton Well Fields. In the late 19th century, the Spring Valley Water Company, a privately owned company that preceded the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, began construction of the Alameda Creek Water System to capture the natural flow from the approximately 633 square mile Alameda Creek Watershed drainage into the Sunol Valley.
The 1900 Sunol Dam across the Alameda creek backed up the creek waters to saturate the nearby gravel beds. The waters percolated through the gravel beds into a system of underground concrete filter galleries leading to the temple site, where they merged with water from the Pleasanton Well Fields in a 40-foot cascade to the Sunol Aqueduct through Niles Canyon, and on to the Bay Area customers.
Originally, the falls were housed in a simple shed to protect them from contamination. But Spring Valley Water Company president William Bowers Bourn wanted a more dignified tribute to what he viewed as the nobility and sheer beauty of Spring Valley's mission - the supply of clean and plentiful water.
Excerpted from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commision website:
The Sunol Valley Water Temple, located on the SFPUC Alameda Watershed near the town of Sunol, marks the confluence of three sources of water flowing into the Sunol Valley of southern Alameda County.
The 1910 beaux arts landmark, built by the SFPUC’s predecessor the Spring Valley Water Company, was designed by renowned architect Willis Polk and modeled after the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy. The converging waters of Alameda Creek, Arroyo de la Laguna, and the Pleasanton Wells poured down into a tile basin at the temple bottom. Though the waters were once used for San Francisco’s water supply before construction of the Hetch Hetchy system, today only a small amount is diverted for local SFPUC uses and storage. The rest is released into Alameda Creek.
Visitors approach Sunol Temple on a long ceremonial drive lined with lilac bushes. A grove of Lombard poplars surrounds the temple, and a ridge of hills rises behind it.
The 60-foot-high Sunol Water Temple's red tile roof rests on 12 Corinthian columns. Wedge-shaped paintings adorn the ceiling supported by elaborately decorated beams. The terra cotta roof elements were fabricated by Gladding McBean Tile Company of Los Angeles, and the painted wood ceiling was created by Yun Gee and other artists.
Sunol Water Temple was designated a California Historical Engineering Landmark in 1976 by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
A six and a half minute video tour of the Water Temple is available on Youtube.
The temple is open to the public from 9AM to 3PM, Monday through Friday. No dogs or pets are allowed on SFPUC Lands.
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