California Volunteers, Memorial monument in San Francisco, United States.
California Volunteers is a bronze and granite monument by sculptor Douglas Tilden, dedicated in 1906 and moved in 1925 to the corner of Market and Dolores Street. Its central figure, Bellona, goddess of war, rides Pegasus; two soldiers stand below, one fallen and one armed with a pistol. The bronze group is 16 feet tall and 10 feet long on a granite base of the same height.
Douglas Tilden's California Volunteers was funded by surplus donations from a reception for volunteers returning from the Philippines and cost $25,000. It was dedicated on Sunday, August 12, 1906, at Market and Van Ness, with speeches by former mayor Phelan, mayor Schmitz, governor Pardee and General James F. Smith. In 1925 it was moved to Market and Dolores Street.
The pedestal inscription reads "Erected by the Citizens of San Francisco in Honor of the California Volunteers, Spanish–American War, 1898. First to the Front." The monument was funded by surplus donations collected for a reception held for California volunteers returning from the Philippines.
The monument stands at the corner of Market and Dolores Streets, its present site since 1925, so approach from the Dolores Street side to see the bronze group against the skyline. The granite base rises about 10 feet, and the figures above it are best viewed from a short distance rather than directly beneath.
Critic Will Sparks wrote in 1906 that from many angles the silhouette was "absolutely meaningless", a "tangled mess of bronze", and urged moving it beside a building; his advice went unheeded until the 1925 move to Market and Dolores.
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