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- Built in 1913 as a promotion for a housing development that was once a racetrack, this dial boasted (incorrectly) that at 34 feet in diameter and a gnomon style 28 feet in length, it was the largest known dial in the western world. Nevertheless it gathered much publicity and newspaper articles thanks to the Urban Realty Improvement Co. The company put out a brochure "The Sundial at Ingleside Terrace with Comments on Homes" using the sundial as a lure to attract home buyers to the newly constructed residential neighborhood. On Oct 10, the same day the Panama Canal was opened, a festive gala was held at the sundial dedication attended by more than 1500 people. Photos show young girls dancing around a small pool that surrounded the gnomon. A light (visible in several early photos) dangled from the tip of the gnomon. Bronze statues of seals were originally in the pool, but by 1920 the pool was filled with concrete and the seals were gone. Today the pool area is painted green.
From outsidelands.org website: "[The Sundial] was to become the focal point of its own park and Ingleside Terraces. Oddly, the party for this sun-dependent clock was conducted at night. The timing had various symbolic reasons. That day the Atlantic and Pacific oceans kissed for the first time at the Panama Canal. It celebrated the planned opening of San Francisco's Twin Peaks Tunnel, whose fast, reliable, and clean streetcar line was designed to serve people living away from the downtown area. And it was a romantic setting that would appeal to any young couple considering a new house... Paths lead away to four huge concrete columns and urns. Decorated with flowers and human figures, they symbolize "the four ages of man and nature's four seasons." A baby in a pram drawn by a stork, with some encouragement from other children, traversed the heart-shaped paths that represent the four points of the compass. Following the children's entertainment, fifty couples joined hands and danced the night away. It was said that the total effect was like being in a fairy land...
Most of the old photographs of the sun dial show children there, and one taken in 1918 shows no houses even constructed in the background. The reflecting pool and its lights were already gone by then; however, a single large light bulb hung just below the tip. As a child I remember in 1958 being dared to reach the top of this edifice, and acted on that prompt by using the safest method possible. I straddled the beam with my hands and knees and shimmied up like a caterpillar (high risk types tend to run up). And I slid back down even quicker, for no matter how enthusiastic my older brother was about how "neat" it was to cling to the top, I knew a fall from that height could be painful.
In November 2022 a bronze 8x30-inch (20x76cm) Equation of Time plaque was dedicated and placed on the north side of the gnomon. And in 2024 the neighborhood association a 2x4inch (5x10cm) plaque with a QR code: https://qrco.de//bfT4dz, making it the first and smallest EOT sundial plaque. Perhaps too small. Another QRC plaque of 4x6 inches (10x15cm) The link to the website by Robert Karis also provides time corrections to the sundial shadow.
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General Information: | Inscription: | - Owner: Ingleside Terraces Homes Association
| - Ingleside Terraces Sundial & Sundial Park
Dedicated October 10, 1913
San Francisco Landmark #293
Gnomon Length 28 Feet
Table of the Equation of Time
Lat: 37.72468 Lon: 122.46875
Ingleside Terraces
Established 1912
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- Designer: Urban Realty Improvement Company
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- Builder: Joseph A. Leonard, Manager
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- Construction Date: October 10, 1913
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| References: | Web Links: |
- Robert Karis performs accurate shadow measurements and can observe the additions or subtractions to the EOT, which, interestingly, that he references in an article by Hugh Godfray in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. Karis' photos of the Ingleside gnomon shadow can be seen at https://www.sfog.us/solar/sundial_accuracy.htm (click at right - dial links)
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Map from Brochure.pdf 149.783 KBytes
