Off Highway 84 in southern Alameda County, past a drive lined with lilacs and poplars, stands a small round temple. The Sunol Water Temple was built in 1910 to celebrate a new water supply for San Francisco.
Who built it
William Bourn, president of the Spring Valley Water Company, hired San Francisco architect Willis Polk to design it, according to the Pacific Coast Architecture Database. Bourn was a loyal patron of Polk's and also commissioned two houses from him. Polk modeled the temple on the round Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy.
What it marks
The temple sits where Alameda Creek, Arroyo de la Laguna and the Pleasanton Wells came together, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission says. The water once poured into a tile basin under the temple and fed San Francisco before the Hetch Hetchy system was built.
The temple is 60 feet tall. Its red tile roof rests on 12 Corinthian columns. Gladding McBean made the terra cotta roof pieces, and artists including Yun Gee painted the wooden ceiling. The American Society of Civil Engineers named it a California Historical Engineering Landmark in 1976.
Can you visit?
Not right now. The SFPUC says the grounds are closed to the public until it finishes building the new Alameda Creek Watershed Center and restoring the temple grounds. Check the SFPUC page before you drive out.