This is the reservoir for the water pumped up its adjacent hill to Rainbow Falls. The water is circulated via the JFK Drive stream, and pours back into the lake in a cascade at its southwest corner. A trail entrance from Transverse Drive leads up the hill overlooking the water. The lake itself has a placid, dreamlike quality due in part to the stately presence of the Portals of the Past. It was also previously referred to as Mirror Lake.
The Portals of the Past has always been one of those folly’s that seem so perfect where it is, a reason to sit on one of the benches and just relax and enjoy the calm of the lake and the park itself.
These columns actually have an interesting history. During the ’06 earthquake and fire, most of Nob Hill was completely destroyed. However, somehow, the entranceway to the mansion of A.N. Towne, then Vice President of Southern Pacific, survived. The home was once a lavish example of Colonial Revivalism designed by the architect Arthur Page Brown and stood at 1101 California Street. In 1909 the portico was donated to the city of San Francisco by Mrs. Caroline Towne in memory of her husband. That same year it was presented by Mayor James Phelan to Park Superintendent John McLaren who placed it in its current location. The monument was named Portals of the Past after a quote found by poet Charles Kellogg Field describing the forward-looking nature of San Franciscans.
In the summer and fall of 2008 the Arts Commission contracted Architectural Resources Group, a San Francisco-based practice specializing in architectural rehabilitation and material conservation, to complete restorative treatment. ARG then contacted Michael H. Casey Designs to recreate missing elements, these included one of the columns and repair to all of the column capitals.
