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The Pulgas Water Temple near Redwood City is a visual delight, a Greco-Roman design rising over a reflecting pool surrounded by cypress trees and framed by the green Santa Cruz Mountains. It wouldn’t seem surprising if nymphs with flowers in their hair showed up to dance there.
Instead, local government officials gathered at an event at the temple on Thursday to honor the 91-year-old site with a water landmark award. That designation came from the American Water Works Association, a national group that has honored the Hoover Dam and the Chicago Water Tower with similar awards.
“But never has a water temple been honored until today”, said Sue Mosburg, executive director of the AWWA California-Nevada Section. “It is gorgeous.”
Mosburg was joined by officials from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and San Mateo County who basked in the attention focused on the local landmark. They stood in front of fluted columns inscribed with a verse from Isaiah in the Bible, “Give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people.”
The temple was built in the 1930s to mark the terminus of the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System, which delivers water to San Francisco and also to residents of Santa Clara, San Mateo and Alameda counties from a source at Yosemite National Park. It is located at 56 Canada Road.
The water system was built by San Francisco, according to SFPUC general manager Dennis Herrera.
Fires after the 1906 earthquake led officials to search for a stable water source. The water system now provides water for over 2.5 million people.
“Water has enabled the Bay Area to thrive,” Herrera said.
Congress authorized the construction of a dam at Hetch Hetchy Valley in 1913, a move that was opposed by conservationists such as John Muir. It took over 20 years before water arrived at this site, amid much celebration, in 1934.
“A drop of water in Hetch Hetchy Reservoir crosses nearly the width of the state of California to get here, using only the power of gravity,” said Herrera. “It continues to be an engineering marvel.”
The Water Temple is next to Crystal Springs Reservoir, one of three water storage reservoirs in San Mateo County, and is surrounded by 23,000 acres of open space land that helps keep the water unpolluted.
Pulgas means fleas in Spanish, although the only animals in attendance at Thursday’s landmark event were a few lizards and songbirds. The name came from nearby Rancho de las Pulgas, Herrera said.
The Water Temple has a parking lot and is open to the public on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
There are restrooms and water refill areas at the site, and a grassy area that is popular with picnickers. On weekends, the site is open only to pedestrians and bicyclists. Many arrive on Sundays when a stretch of adjacent Canada Road is closed to vehicles from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and non-motorized activities are allowed, including jogging, bicycling, hiking, roller skating and walking.
The Bay Area is also home to a similar water temple in the East Bay community of Sunol that opened in 1910. Visible to passing motorists on Interstate Highway 680, it has been closed to visitors for many years. An Alameda Creek watershed center building is under construction there, according to Steve Ritchie, SFPUC assistant general manager.
“I’m pretty confident that it will reopen next year,” Ritchie said.
After the landmark ceremony at Pulgas, people arrived at the other end of the pool to take photo shoots. The temple is a popular site for weddings and for other special occasion photography.
“It is very clean. It has everything,” said model Shalini Srivastava of Livermore. “We can shoot in the shade. It is very peaceful.”
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