Portal of the Past

I've run past this structure in Golden Gate Park dozens of times and have always wondered what the heck it's doing there. It sits at the edge of a pond just off JFK Drive. I always imagine that it's a magic doorway that you can step through to reach another time and place (sort of like the Pevensie's wardrobe).





It's actually called the "Portal to the Past" and came from the porch of an old mansion on Nob Hill that the 1906 earthquake and fire damaged. I found this neat postcard of it at a vintage paper festival today.