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Illuminating the grid: historic power buildings of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

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Illuminating the grid: historic power buildings of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

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Content ILLUMINATING THE GRID:
HISTORIC POWER BUILDINGS OF THE LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF
WATER AND POWER

by
Stephanie C. Hodal

________________________________________________________________

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF HERITAGE CONSERVATION

December 2018

Copyright 2018 Stephanie C. Hodal

ii
Acknowledgments

This final academic document is written with immense gratitude to the faculty in
the Heritage Conservation program. Thank you for being guides on a path that is
enlivened and illuminated by your provocative teaching and innovations in
practice.

Dr. Paul Soifer, consulting historian for the Department of Water and Power and
Angela Tatum at the Department of Water and Power Records Center spent
many hours preparing documents and navigating records with me. Your
stewardship is invaluable to the City and to scholars trying to understand the
phenomenon that is Los Angeles.

Frank Hsu, Architect, and Guillermo Honles, Architectural Associate, in the
Power Systems Architectural Group at the Department of Water and Power were
gracious and effusive interviewees. Our extended conversations and top-to-
bottom tour of the amazing Ferraro Office Building answered technical questions
and provided perspective on design values.

My thesis committee inspires with their scholarship, teaching, and activism.
Thank you Bill Deverell, Katie Horak, and Trudi Sandmeier for your graciousness,
commentary, example as professionals, and focused interaction as we
hammered this out together.

Family, friends, and colleagues have informed, indulged, and tolerated my
fascination with the infrastructure and background architecture that make cities
run. It started with the heroic rendering of a hydroelectric plant exhibited at the
Chicago Century of Progress Exposition in 1933. My father was the award-
winning architecture student whose work had been selected for display. That
drawing launched a multi-generational urge to explore and understand urban
backwaters. We’re still on the adventure. Sara Marie and Rudy, thank you – I
know you’d be proud.

iii
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ...................................................................................... ii
Table of Contents ...................................................................................... iii
List of Tables ............................................................................................... v
List of Figures ............................................................................................. vi
Abstract ....................................................................................................... x
Introduction ................................................................................................ 1
Chapter 1: History of the LADWP Power System ....................................... 2
Electricity Before the Aqueduct ........................................................ 2
The Beginning of Municipal Electricity .............................................. 7
Electricity on the Aqueduct ............................................................ 11
Creating Additional Power .............................................................. 13
Inventing a System ......................................................................... 18
Chapter 2: How the Power System Works ................................................ 22
Power Generation .......................................................................... 22
Power Transmission ....................................................................... 25
Power Distribution .......................................................................... 30
Chapter 3: Image of the Power System .................................................... 33
Creating an Aesthetic: Frederick Louis Roehrig ............................. 33
Municipal Art Commission .............................................................. 48
Chapter 4: Distributing Stations in the Power System .............................. 51
Powering the Neighborhoods ......................................................... 51
Functionality ................................................................................... 52
Harmony ......................................................................................... 57
Distributing Stations from 1910-1929 ............................................. 63
Distributing Stations form 1930-1939 ............................................. 68
Distributing Stations from 1940-1949 ............................................. 71
Distributing Stations Added to the System 1922 and 1937 ............ 73
Conclusion ................................................................................................ 77
Significance and Eligibility .............................................................. 77

iv
Recommendations ......................................................................... 83
Topics for Further Investigation ...................................................... 84
Bibliography .............................................................................................. 86
Appendices ............................................................................................... 99
Appendix A: Prewar Growth in Los Angeles .................................. 99
Appendix B: Chronological Inventory, Generating, Switching,
and Receiving Facilities ................................................................ 100

Appendix C: The Los Angeles Department of Water and
Power in 2017 .............................................................................. 101

Appendix D: Inventory by DWP Station Number – Distributing
Stations, 1917-1945 ..................................................................... 105

Appendix E: Inventory by DWP Date in Service – Distributing
Stations, 1917-1945 ..................................................................... 115

v

List of Tables

Table 4.1: Prewar Growth in Los Angeles ................................................. 51

vi

List of Figures

Figure 1.1: First electric light plant in Los Angeles. .................................... 4

Figure 1.2: First public electric street light in Los Angeles. ......................... 5

Figure 1.3: Los Angeles Aqueduct Profile Diagram. ................................. 12

Figure 1.4: Boulder/Hoover Dam Transmission Line Towers. .................. 15

Figure 1.5: Erecting the Boulder/Hoover Transmission Towers. ............... 15

Figure 1.6: “Light on Parade” marches on Broadway. .............................. 17

Figure 1.7: Los Angeles City Hall illuminated with sixteen arc-lights. ....... 17

Figure 1.8: Ezra F. Scattergood (1871-1947). .......................................... 18

Figure 2.1: From Generation to Consumption. .......................................... 22

Figure 2.2: Cottonwood Creek and Division Creek Power Plants. ............ 23

Figure 2.3: San Francisquito Power Plant No. 1 and Pelton Wheel. ........ 24

Figure 2.4: Upper generator room at Hoover Dam. .................................. 24

Figure 2.5: 115kV Transmission Tower and Double-circuit tower. ............ 26

Figure 2.6: Olive Switching Station and Victorville Switching Station. ...... 26

Figure 2.7: Receiving Station B, 1927. ...................................................... 28

Figure 2.8 Receiving Station B, 2015. ....................................................... 28

Figure 2.9: Ezra Scattergood Sketch for Receiving Yard. ......................... 29

Figure 2.10: Aerial View Receiving Station B. ........................................... 29

Figure 2.11: Toluca Receiving Station E and Control Room Century
Receiving Station B. ................................................................................. 30

Figure 2.12: Generating, Receiving, and Distributing Facilities. ............... 32

Figure 3.1: San Francisquito Power Plant No. 1. ..................................... 36

vii
Figure 3.2: San Francisquito Power Plant No. 1. ...................................... 36

Figure 3.3: St. John Receiving/Distributing Station No. 1. ........................ 37

Figure 3.4: St. John Receiving/Distributing Station No. 1. ....................... 37

Figure 3.5: Garvanza Distributing Station No. 2. ....................................... 38

Figure 3.6: Garvanza Distributing Station No. 2. ....................................... 39

Figure 3.7: San Francisquito Power Plant No. 2. ...................................... 39

Figure 3.8: San Francisquito Power Plant No. 2. ...................................... 40

Figure 3.9: Mateo Distributing Station No. 5. ............................................ 41

Figure 3.10: Normandie Distributing Station No. 13. ................................. 41

Figure 3.11: Trinity Distributing Station No. 19. ........................................ 42

Figure 3.12: Trinity Distributing Station No. 19. ........................................ 44

Figure 3.13: Trinity Distributing Station No. 19. ........................................ 44

Figure 3.14: Venice Distributing Station No. 44. ....................................... 45

Figure 3.15: Venice Distributing Station No. 44, 2018. ............................. 45

Figure 3.16: Pacific Palisades Distributing Station No. 29. ....................... 46

Figure 3.17: Pacific Palisades Distributing Station No. 29. ....................... 47

Figure 3.18: Eagle Rock Distributing Station No. 30. ................................ 47

Figure 3.19: Eagle Rock Distributing Station No. 30. ................................ 48

Figure 4.1: San Pedro Distributing Station No. 3. ..................................... 54

Figure 4.2: Slauson Distributing Station No. 4. ......................................... 55

Figure 4.3: Fourth Street Distributing Station No. 12. ............................... 55

Figure 4.4: Highland Receiving Station No. 10. ........................................ 56

Figure 4.5: Fourth Street Distributing Station No. 12. ............................... 56

viii
Figure 4.6: Construction sign at Longwood Distribution Station No. 8. ..... 58

Figure 4.7: Commonwealth Distributing Station No. 15. ........................... 60

Figure 4.8: Distributing Station Construction. ............................................ 63

Figure 4.9: Garvanza Distributing Station No. 2. ....................................... 64

Figure 4.10: Francisco Distributing Station No. 9. ..................................... 64

Figure 4.11: Vine Distributing Station No. 6. ............................................. 64

Figure 4.12: San Pedro Distributing Station No. 3. ................................... 65

Figure 4.13: Mateo Distributing Station No. 5. .......................................... 65

Figure 4.14: Normandie Distributing Station No. 13. ................................. 65

Figure 4.15: Commonwealth Distributing Station No. 15. ......................... 66

Figure 4.16: Trinity Distributing Station No. 19. ........................................ 66

Figure 4.17: Corto Distributing Station No 11. .......................................... 66

Figure 4.18: Slauson Distributing Station No. 4. ....................................... 67

Figure 4.19: Venice Distributing Station No. 44. ....................................... 67

Figure 4.20: Distributing Stations, 1930 - 1939. ........................................ 68

Figure 4.21: Irolo Distributing Station No. 17. ........................................... 68

Figure 4.22: Highland Distributing Station No. 10. .................................... 69

Figure 4.23: Palms Distributing Station No. 20. ........................................ 69

Figure 4.24: Palisades Distributing Station No. 29. ................................... 69
.
Figure 4.25: Eagle Rock Distributing Station No. 20. ................................ 70
.
Figure 4.26: Longfellow Distributing Station No. 8. ................................... 70

Figure 4.27: Distributing Stations, 1940 - 1949. ........................................ 71

Figure 4.28: Indiana Distributing Station No. 23. ...................................... 71

ix
Figure 4.29: North Hollywood Distributing Station No. 35. ........................ 72

Figure 4.30: Fourth Street Distributing Station No. 12. ............................. 73

Figure 4.31: 1035 W. 24
th
Street Distributing Station No. 31. ................... 73

Figure 4.32: Santee Distributing Station No. 34. ....................................... 73

Figure 4.33: Western Distributing Station No. 45. ..................................... 74

Figure 4.34: Belmont Distributing Station No. 26. ..................................... 74

Figure 4.35: Pico Distributing Station No. 43. ........................................... 74

Figure 4.36: Woodlawn Distributing Station No. 32. ................................. 75

Figure 4.37: Hobart Distributing Station No. 38. ....................................... 75

Figure 4.38: Exposition Distributing Station No. 39. .................................. 75

Figure 4.39: Figueroa Distributing Station No. 41. .................................... 76

x

Abstract

This thesis investigates the development of the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power power system and the artfully designed pre-World War II
buildings that contain the technology of the nation’s largest power utility. These
buildings contain equipment that generates, receives, and distributes electricity to
residential, commercial, industrial, and street lighting customers. A large number
are intact and continue to perform their function after seventy to one hundred
years of use. This thesis will pay particular attention to distributing stations, the
last step in the system before transmitting power to the consumer. Typically
located at the points of greatest expected need as the city expanded, they exhibit
a wide range of styles and are the ubiquitous facility that represents the brand of
the power utility in each neighborhood.

Chapter 1 traces the history of the power system, its relationship to the city’s
water system, and how acquisition and consolidation created a centralized utility
agency. Chapter 2 explains the technology of generating and delivering power.
Chapter 3 examines the forces behind the system’s deliberate aesthetic strategy.
Chapter 4 surveys the system’s distributing buildings and maps their locations,
illustrating a growth pattern that parallels the physical expansion of Los Angeles.
The conclusion summarizes the historic value of the power buildings and
discusses how new historic information can inform a more thorough evaluation of
their significance at the local, state, and national level.

1
Introduction

In the mythology of Los Angeles, November 5, 1913 marks the birth of a modern
American metropolis. On that day, the Los Angeles Owens River Aqueduct (now
known as the Los Angeles Aqueduct) delivered water from the Owens Valley to
the city for the first time. William Mulholland, Chief Engineer for the Bureau of
Waterworks and Supply, marked its arrival with his memorable declaration,
“There it is – take it!” The water system’s complex engineering and construction
were regarded as an international marvel and Los Angeles’ bold manipulation of
nature as a brash step toward future greatness.

The power system is not part of this origin story yet its development was both
intertwined with and coincident with the aqueduct.
1
Water and power, together,
were the transformative force behind Los Angeles’ stunning growth. While the
narrative of water is omnipresent, its infrastructure is hidden, engaging with
consumers at the tap. Inversely, the infrastructure of power is highly visible in the
daily life of the city – from poles and lines to distributing and receiving stations -
yet its tale is relatively unknown.

Individually and as a group, the buildings of the power system are a valuable
record of Los Angeles’ infrastructure, physical development, and architectural
expression. In addition, many are the work of a master architect and reflect the
influence of a civic design agenda tied to the City Beautiful movement. The
buildings retain exceptional integrity. This thesis establishes a background to
support their nomination for local, state, and national designation.

1
The first buildings in the system, Cottonwood Power Plant (1908) and Division Creek Power
Plant (1909), supplied energy to run equipment along the aqueduct. They would be followed, in
ten years, by buildings to convey power from the aqueduct to Los Angeles. "Construction of the
Los Angeles Aqueduct," Water and Power Associates, Historical Notes, accessed May 15, 2018,
https://www.waterandpower.org/museum/Construction_of_the_LA_Aqueduct.html.

2

Chapter 1: History of the LADWP Power System
Electricity Before the Aqueduct
The first power from the aqueduct arrived in Los Angeles in 1917.
2
It was the
culmination of a multi-year project to harness and manage electricity as a
municipal resource essential to the growth, comfort, and status of the expanding
city. But electricity was not new to Los Angeles. Experiments with the technology
of power generation and innovations in urban electrical illumination had been
underway for more than forty years. Before the advent of municipal power,
private electric companies were already providing power for streetlights and
streetcars as well as for limited commercial and industrial use. These plants
burned wood, coal, gas, and oil to produce steam. Their production capacity was
limited by fuel supply and cost. Although located at a distance, hydropower
offered a cheaper alternative and a technology that was already active elsewhere
in the state.
3

Miners and loggers, who had swarmed into California after 1848, developed the
hydraulic know-how to power mining operations and lumber extraction in remote
locations, particularly in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Its high elevations
and steep grades made for productive dams and powerhouses along creeks and
small rivers. By the later nineteenth

and early twentieth centuries, many of the
ditches, flumes, and dams used to extract mineral resources had been converted
into hydroelectric plants to power small operations and camps. The techniques
for drilling and driving for mining were equally applicable to excavating tunnels
and conduits for accessing and conveying water over long distances.
4

2
Paul Soifer, "Water and Power for Los Angeles," in The Development of Los Angeles City
Government: An Institutional History, 1850-2000, ed. Hynda Rudd, vol. 1 (Los Angeles, CA: City
of Los Angeles Historical Society, 2007), 224.
3
Peter Asmus, Introduction to Energy in California, vol. 97, California Natural History Guides
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), 9.
4
Ibid., 6.

3
Many of the innovations developed in this setting became standard practice in
the emerging hydroelectric industry. The compact and lightweight Pelton water
wheel, invented in Yuba County in 1878, became the dominant technology in
California’s hydroelectric plants. Its ability to handle fast-moving water made it
particularly valuable in mountainous areas. It was used to generate electricity in
Nevada County by 1887 and powered a plant on San Antonio Creek for the
Pomona-Riverside-San Bernardino area by 1892. That plant pioneered the use
of transformers to step-up and step-down power, allowing it to be transmitted at
high voltage and distributed at low voltage. The typically long distance between
power sources and end-users led to the invention of long-distance transmission
technology.
5
All these strategies would be put to use in the aqueduct power
plants only a few decades later.

In this same time period, entrepreneurs and inventors were developing the
technology of illumination. Electric arc streetlights were introduced to Los
Angeles in 1882; they were the brainchild of Charles F. Brush, an American
engineer who pioneered the earliest urban electric systems in the country.
6
His
design for a highly efficient electrical generator and arc-lighting system was
reliable, affordable, and easily maintained, qualities that made it attractive for
civic and commercial illumination. Brush organized the California Electric Light
Company in San Francisco in 1879. The company was the first to build a central
generating station that could manufacture and distribute on-demand electricity to
multiple customers across a district via transmission lines.
7
By 1891, New York,
Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Montreal, Buffalo, Cleveland, and San Francisco
were lighting parts of their downtowns with Brush’s patented arc-light technology.

Meanwhile, on the east coast, Thomas Alva Edison was working to refine an
incandescent electric light bulb that was safer to operate, less expensive, and

5
Ibid., 12-13.
6
Information on the early history of electricity in the region and the Edison system relies on the
following source: William A. Myers, Iron Men and Copper Wires: A Centennial History of the
Southern California Edison Company (Glendale, CA: Trans-Anglo Books, 1983).
7
This central station concept would become the standard model for the electric utility industry.

4
offered a softer lighting quality than the arc-light. In 1882, he introduced his
system to generate and distribute electric service to multiple customers from a
central generating station on Pearl Street in New York City. San Francisco and
New York became the first two American cities to attempt bulk power distribution.

Los Angeles’ City Council, eyeing these successes, signed a two-year contract
with the California Electric Light Company to provide street illumination in 1882.
Represented locally by Charles Howland, the company built a generating plant at
Alameda and Banning Streets along with the distributing poles and lines to power
seven 150-foot-high masts. These were located downtown and in the nearby
suburbs of Boyle Heights and Lincoln Heights. Each carried three lamps that,
because of the unit’s brightness and height, illuminated several surrounding
blocks at a level said to be the equivalent of a full moon.
8
(Figures 1.1 and 1.2)

Figure 1.1: First electric light plant in Los Angeles at Alameda and Banning Streets, circa 1882.
Source: waterandpower.org.

8
"Early Los Angeles Streetlights," and “Early Power Generation,” Water and Power Associates,
Museum Website, http://www.waterandpower.org/museum.

5

Figure 1.2: The first public electric street light in Los Angeles looking toward the east side of
North Main Street at Commercial Street, circa 1882. Source: Los Angeles Public Library Photo
Collection.

Before the contract expired, the company had reconstituted as the Los Angeles
Electric Company. Under a new name, it expanded to provide more streetlights
and to introduce arc-lighting for commercial businesses.
9
By the mid-1880s, 240
of the 150-foot street masts had been installed. Los Angeles effectively became
the first city in the country to replace gas lighting with electricity. The company
built another generating plant at Alameda and Palmetto Street in 1893, the
largest in Southern California at that time. Los Angeles Electric Company
eventually became Los Angeles Gas and Electric in 1904 and continued to
provide power to the city until merging into The Bureau of Power and Light in
1937.
10

Other competitors emerged immediately, several of which would become major
providers. The West Side Lighting Company, organized in 1896 to serve the

9
First Electricity in Los Angeles," Waterandpower.org, accessed May 18, 2018,
http://www.waterandpower.org/museum/First%20Electricity%20in%20Los%20Angeles.html.
10
"First Electricity in Los Angeles," Waterandpower.org, Electricity in Early Los Angeles –
Historical Timeline, accessed May 18, 2018,
http://www.waterandpower.org/museum/First%20Electricity%20in%20Los%20Angeles.html.

6
residential neighborhoods west of Bunker Hill, merged one year later with Los
Angeles Edison Electric to form Edison Electric Company of Los Angeles.
11
The
new company built a steam power plant near Second and Boylston Streets on
the parcel that would later become the Bureau of Power and Light’s (and, now,
Department of Water and Power’s) Boylston Yards. In 1898 they built a new
substation at East Fourth Street and began laying underground “Edison tubes” to
power downtown, eliminating overhead lines in the business district.
12
Edison
purchased the Southern California Power Company in this same period, gaining
water rights on the upper Santa Ana River and possession of a hydroelectric
plant, Santa Ana No. 1, already in construction there.
13
The Edison Company
built an eighty-three mile long transmission line in 1899, at that point the longest
in the world, to connect the plant to downtown Los Angeles.
14

The company pioneered another long-distance phase of power transmission in
1907 with construction of the 118-mile long Kern River transmission line. Boosted
by a $10 million dollar investment from East Coast banks, the project imported
power from new hydroelectric plants built on the western slope of the Sierra
Nevada.
15
In 1909 the company was renamed Southern California Edison.
16
It
would continue to acquire smaller companies and be a major competitor to the
municipal system until the late 1930s when it was shut out of Los Angeles. Today,
the company serves all of the unincorporated territories of Los Angeles County
and its cities except for Los Angeles, Pasadena, Glendale, and Burbank.

Streetcar entrepreneurs were quick to take advantage of the newly available
electricity and would be the largest early consumers of the resource. Among
them was Charles Howland who leveraged his experience with California Electric
Light Company to organize the city’s first electric streetcar enterprise, the Los

11
Soifer, "Water and Power for Los Angeles," 220.
12
Myers, Iron Men and Copper Wires, 37.
13
Ibid.
14
Asmus, Introduction to Energy in California, 40.
15
Asmus, Introduction to Energy in California, 41.
16
First Electricity in Los Angeles," Waterandpower.org, accessed May 18, 2018,
http://www.waterandpower.org/museum/First%20Electricity%20in%20Los%20Angeles.html.

7
Angeles Electric Railroad Company in 1887. Henry Huntington formed the Los
Angeles Railway Company in 1901 and one year later started the Pacific Light
and Power Company as a way to provide energy for his new Pacific Electric Red
Car enterprise.
17

Huntington’s local plants ran on steam-generated thermal energy fueled by gas
and oil. In pursuit of a cheaper hydroelectric source, the company built its own
plant at Big Creek on the San Joaquin River in 1911 on the western slope of the
Sierras. By 1913, Big Creek was delivering power to Los Angeles over a 240-
mile transmission line. Huntington sold Pacific Light and Power to Southern
California Edison in 1917. Edison and Los Angeles Gas and Electric continued to
compete in Los Angeles until the late 1930s when the municipal Department of
Water and Power became the sole provider in the city.

As with power, water had been supplied to nineteenth century Los Angeles
through a network of private companies. The single largest provider, the Los
Angeles Water Company, had a thirty-year lease with the city from 1868 through
1898. Three decades of contentious battles over service and rates convinced Los
Angeles to put water under municipal control. The City completed purchase of
the company in 1902.
18
The now municipally-owned water department with a
Board of Water Commissioners appointed William Mulholland as Superintendent.
This nascent municipal water program would give rise to a municipal power
program in a few short years.

The Beginning of Municipal Electricity
With population exploding - between 1890 and 1900 Los Angeles doubled in size
from fifty-thousand to over one-hundred thousand people - the limited and
unreliable flow of the Los Angeles River was increasingly inadequate and other

17
Information in this and the following paragraph are based on "Pacific Light and Power Co.
Patrol Station," Scvhistory.com, accessed June 1, 2018,
https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/lw2707.htm.
18
Soifer, "Water and Power for Los Angeles," 218-219.

8
regional sources were being quickly exhausted.
19
The Water Commissioners
authorized Mulholland and hydraulic engineer J. B. Lippincott to complete a study
of Southern California’s hydrology. Their 1905 Report on Water Supply
concluded that no adequate source was available in the region. The Water
Commissioners 1906 Annual Report included their document and noted that the
Commissioners had already taken action. Their introduction to the document
endorsed an Owens River Valley scheme and announced contracts with Fred
Eaton to acquire forty miles along the Owens River above Owens Lake including
Long Valley in Mono County.
20

Hydroelectric potential was not detailed in Mulholland’s report but was buried in a
1905 consultant review of his survey.
21
The notion that it could be a lucrative
byproduct of an aqueduct appeared again in the 1906 Annual Report of the
Board of Water Commissioners, presented as an almost incidental aside in the
Commissioners’ introduction:

While the chief value of this project is the abundant supply of wholesome
water, sufficient for all the future needs of the city, yet we feel that mention
should also be made, at this time, of the opportunities there will be for the
development of electrical power along the line of the water conduit. The
elevation above sea level of the point on Owens River where the city will
probably establish its first inversion works, is about 3,800 feet, or more
than 3,500 above the elevation at City Hall. It is estimated that, from the
fall of water at points along the conduit, at least 80,000 horse power might
be developed, so that the city would have, from this source, after lighting
its own streets, parks, and buildings, a large excess of power available for
domestic and other purposes. It is easy to perceive that the amount of
revenue that might be derived from this source, together with the net
income from the water department, would be sufficient to meet, if not
whole, at least a substantial part of the indebtedness to be incurred by the
city in completing this project.
22

19
See Appendix A: Prewar Growth in Los Angeles.
20
5th Annual Report of the Board of Water Commissioners of the City of Los Angeles for the Year
Ending November 30, 1906, report (Los Angeles: Kingsley, Moles & Collins, 1906), 4-7.
21
Myers, Iron Men and Copper Wires, 146.
22
5th Annual Report of the Board of Water Commissioners, 6.

9
This claim - that the sale of power could pay for the cost of aqueduct construction
– was the confirmation needed to accelerate development of the system.
23

In 1906, the Board of Water Commissioners created the Bureau of the Los
Angeles Aqueduct, appointing William Mulholland as Chief Engineer and Ezra
Scattergood as Special Consulting Electrical Engineer. As the aqueduct
progressed, the Bureau of Los Angeles Aqueduct Power was established in 1909
to plan the transfer of hydroelectric power to the city at low cost. Scattergood was
named Chief Electrical Engineer, his position now parallel to Mulholland’s.

In 1910, the citizens of Los Angeles passed a $3.5 million bond issue to fund
creation of a city-owned municipal electric system.
24
Rather than leasing
aqueduct sites to private companies to carry out distribution, this committed the
City to the construction of an entire system. One year later, the Los Angeles
Department of Public Service and the Public Service Commission were
organized to oversee water, electrical, and other emerging infrastructure
functions. Under their authority, a new Bureau of Water Works and Supply,
formerly the Water Department, would oversee municipal water and a Bureau of
Power and Light would oversee municipal electricity. Mulholland and Scattergood
continued in their respective leadership roles. An amendment to the City Charter
in 1913 certified the policy of public ownership for water and power, just as the
aqueduct opened.

Another bond measure in 1914 approved an additional $6.5 million for acquisition
of private power companies and completion of the initial buildings for the city’s
electrical system. This would include the San Francisquito Power Plant No. 1
near Santa Clarita, Olive Switching Station in the San Fernando Valley, St. John

23
Soifer, "Water and Power for Los Angeles," 223.
24
Information in the following five paragraphs is based on “First Electricity in Los Angeles,"
Waterandpower.org, accessed May 18, 2018,
http://www.waterandpower.org/museum/First%20Electricity%20in%20Los%20Angeles.html.

10
Receiving Station A/Distributing Station No. 1 in downtown Los Angeles on Main
Street near the Los Angeles River, and the Garvanza Distributing Station No. 2.

In 1916, with initial system construction still unfinished, the Bureau of Power and
Light began to provide municipal streetlights with a first installation at Sycamore
Grove Park in the Garvanza district. The new Garvanza Distributing Station
powered the lights using electricity initially purchased from a Pasadena utility. In
1917, the four new buildings were placed in service, gathering power from the
waters of the aqueduct and transferring it to Los Angles over a newly constructed
transmission line. This was the Bureau of Power and Light’s first step in
becoming an independent power provider.

In 1922, Los Angeles bought out the distribution system of its main competitor,
Southern California Edison, further consolidating municipal control within city
limits. The deal conveyed at least ten existing distributing stations to the Bureau.
Areas annexed or consolidated after 1922 continued to receive power distributed
by Edison and the Bureau of Power and Light continued to purchase as-needed
power from Edison through the late 1930s.

In 1936, as the first power arrived from Hoover Dam, Los Angeles changed its
City Charter once again, giving the Bureau of Power and Light exclusive rights to
supply electric service. In 1937, the Bureau of Power and Light and the Bureau of
Water Works and Supply merged to become the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power (LADWP.) Shut out of the market, Los Angeles Gas and
Electric sold their system to the LADWP. Two years later, in 1939, the LADWP
purchased Southern California Edison’s remaining Los Angeles system and
integrated their facilities, although Southern California Edison continued to
operate outside the city boundaries.

11
Electricity on the Aqueduct
25

The power system, like the aqueduct system, was designed to leverage the drop
in elevation between the High Sierras and Los Angeles, in this case to create
hydropower. The first two buildings in the system were power plants built to
expedite aqueduct construction. These modest wood frame structures housed
generators and harnessed the flow of creek water tumbling down steep eastern
Sierra slopes. Division Creek Power Plant No. 1, located between Independence
and Big Pine and Cottonwood Creek Power Plant No. 2, located south of Lone
Pine near Owens Lake, were both up and running by early 1909. Their power
travelled over temporary transmission lines through the Owens Valley to Mojave
supporting construction operations and fifty-seven construction camps along the
aqueduct as well as production at the Bureau-owned Monolith cement plant that
supplied all the material for the aqueduct’s concrete-lined conduit and canal. Big
Pine Power Plant No. 3 was built in 1925 and Haiwee, to the south of Olancha, in
1927 to boost the amount of power available to Los Angeles. Eventually the
aqueduct system would encompass fourteen power plants with twelve related
reservoirs. (Figure 1.3)

25
Information in the following three paragraphs is based on “Electricity on the Aqueduct,"
Waterandpower.org, accessed May 18, 2018,
https://waterandpower.org/museum/Electricity%20on%20the%20Aqueduct.html.

12

Figure 1.3: Los Angeles Aqueduct Profile Diagram. Source: Library of Congress Image Archive;
Los Angeles Aqueduct from Lee Vining intake (Mammoth Lakes) to Van Norman Reservoir
Complex (San Fernando Valley).

Water for the electrical system started its flow at Long Valley Reservoir, dropping
2,400 feet through the Owens Valley Gorge to the Owens Valley floor just above
Bishop. From Bishop the water flowed in the Owens River channel to an intake
approximately thirty miles south where it entered the aqueduct, beginning its path
to Los Angeles over the gravity-powered system. Water flowed for ten miles
through this first segment in an unlined forty-foot wide ditch, then for thirty-five
miles in a lined concrete open-air channel. Skirting around Owens Lake, it
entered the Haiwee Reservoirs at 3,760 feet from which it departed in an
enclosed conduit tunnel or pipe toward Los Angeles, descending another 2,560
feet to emerge at the Fairmont Reservoir. It then moved via the Elisabeth Lake
pressure tunnel to San Francisquito Powerhouse No. 1 (1917) where turbines
converted flow into electricity. It was then conveyed over a newly built 115kV
transmission line to the Olive Switching Station and on to the St. John Receiving
Station A.
26

26
Gregg J. Layne, Water and Power for a Great City: A History of the Department of Water and
Power of the City of Los Angeles to December 1950 (Los Angeles: Department of Water and
Power, 1952), 193.

13

In 1920, the San Francisquito Powerhouse No. 2 was added below Powerhouse
No. 1 to boost the volume of available power. The St. Francis dam was added
between the two in 1926. It would provide back-up water or power in case of
drought or disruptions further up the aqueduct. The St. Francis dam failure in
1928 destroyed Power Plant No. 2 as it swept through the San Francisquito and
Santa Clara River valleys. Quickly rebuilt, the power station was back online in
eight months.

Creating Additional Power
As early as 1920, Mulholland and Scattergood began to assess locations from
which to acquire more water and more hydropower.
27
Los Angeles’ population
had nearly doubled again between 1910 and 1920 and was projected to continue
growing at the same rate.
28
The physical spread of the city, accompanied by
confident commercial and industrial expansion, were taxing the existing water
and power capacity. Los Angeles was unable to generate enough power to meet
peak demand and was buying it from Southern California Edison at excessive
rates.
29
Two new sources would be added to the system in the next fifteen years:
Hoover Dam and the steam generation capacity of the Los Angeles Gas and
Electric Company.

The Bureau of Reclamation had identified Boulder/Hoover Canyon as a potential
site for a dam in 1918 to manage flooding and irrigation. Los Angeles joined
negotiations with the Federal government and with adjoining states to gain rights
to development for water and power. Again, the eventual sale of electricity was
expected to underwrite the cost of the project through the lease of power
privileges, in this case to regional users although Los Angeles was tacitly
recognized as the primary market.
30

27
Soifer, "Water and Power for Los Angeles," 225.
28
See Appendix A: Prewar Growth in Los Angeles.
29
Layne, Water and Power for a Great City, 195.
30
Soifer, "Water and Power for Los Angeles," 225.

14

Congress passed the Boulder Canyon Project Act in 1928 enabling construction
of a dam to control flooding, a canal system to deliver irrigation water to farmland
lower on the river, and a U-shaped powerhouse at the base of the dam. The
project ran from 1931 to 1936. At the end, sixteen high-voltage transmission lines
exited Hoover Dam powerhouse feeding power to Nevada, Arizona, and
California. Two of the lines traveled 266 miles on 2,800 new transmission towers
to Los Angeles.
31

The Boulder/Hoover - Los Angeles Transmission lines were constructed between
1933 and 1936 and generator installation at Boulder/Hoover Dam started in 1935.
Two rows of towers, 109-feet high and spaced 800 to 1,000 feet apart, carried
power a distance of 226 miles from the Boulder/Hoover Power Plant to the El
Cajon Pass. From that location, single towers, 144-feet high, carried power the
remaining forty miles to Los Angeles. At the time of their construction, the towers
were the largest in the world.
32
(Figures 1.4, 1.5)

31
“Construction of Hoover Dam," Waterandpower.org, accessed May 18, 2018,
https://waterandpower.org/museum/Construction_of_Hoover_Dam.html; Layne,
Water and Power for a Great City, 242.
32
“Early Power Transmission," Waterandpower.org, accessed May 18, 2018,
https://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_Power_Transmission.html.

15

Figure 1.4: Boulder/Hoover Dam – Los Angeles Transmission Line Single and Double Circuit
Towers. Source: Electrical Engineering, May 1935.
33

Figure 1.5: Erecting the Boulder/Hoover Transmission Towers, 1935. Source: Historical Photo
Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

33
E. F. Scattergood, "Engineering Features of the Boulder Dam - Los Angeles Lines," Electrical
Engineering, May 1935.

16
Boulder transmission line construction camps were built at Boulder City, Jean,
Kingston Valley, Silver Lake, Harvard, Victorville, and Cozy Dell. Each was
located at the approximate center of a circuit construction section. About 1600
men were employed on the transmission project. Double towers were assembled
in about ten hours and single towers in four to five hours by separate teams. The
initial team assembled the steel parts into units. An erector team erected the
tower and bolted the units. A checking gang checked all tower parts, completed
assembly with locknuts, and filed a final report.
34

On September 11, 1936, President Roosevelt pressed a button in Washington,
D.C., starting the primary generator in the powerhouse at Hoover Dam. Four
weeks later, on October 9, Los Angeles would receive its first allotment of power
from the dam. A crowd of more than one million people awaited the power’s
arrival at a City ceremony and celebration that was broadcast nationwide on NBC
radio.
35
At Temple and Broadway, ten- thousand gathered to hear speeches,
prayers, and the voice of a massed chorus. Ezra Scattergood’s daughter,
Elizabeth, touched a key to make the connection with Hoover Dam, suddenly
illuminating City Hall and downtown in a wave of light. The ceremony was
followed by a nighttime “Light on Parade” procession down Broadway and a ten-
day (and night) tribute to electrical progress, the Electrical Age Exposition at the
Pan Pacific Auditorium.
36
(Figures 1.6,1.7) With the connection made, Hoover
Dam would provide more than seventy percent of Los Angeles’ power needs,
eliminating the burden of purchasing additional electricity from Southern
California Edison.
37
By the 1940s, ninety-six percent of the city’s energy for
residential, commercial, and defense use would be supplied by the dam.
38

34
“Early Power Transmission," Waterandpower.org, accessed May 18, 2018,
https://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_Power_Transmission.html.
35
Layne, Water and Power for a Great City, 254.
36
“Construction of Boulder Dam," Waterandpower.org, accessed May 18, 2018,
https://waterandpower.org/museum/Construction_of_Hoover_Dam.html.
37
Robert M. Fogelson, The Fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles, 1850-1930 (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1983), 244.
38
Soifer, "Water and Power for Los Angeles," 231.

17

Figure 1.6: “Light on Parade” marches on Broadway in the celebration welcoming electricity to
Los Angeles at completion of Hoover Dam, 1936. Source: waterandpower.org.

Figure 1.7: Los Angeles City Hall illuminated with sixteen arc-lights as power arrived from Boulder
Dam, 1936 (left). Source: Source: Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and
power from Hoover Dam, 1936 (right). Source: http://framework.latimes.com/2013/10/05/hoover-dam-
lights-up-los-angeles-party/#/7.

18
In 1937, shortly after Boulder power arrived, the purchase of the electrical side of
Los Angeles Gas and Electric was completed. The City gained steam-generating
power plants at Alameda and Seal Beach, giving the system a standby power
source independent of water supply.
39

Inventing a System
Ezra F. Scattergood is the mastermind of municipal power for Los Angeles, as
important a figure as Mulholland in the story of the city. (Figure 1.8) As Chief
Electrical Engineer and General Manager for over three decades, he was
instrumental in envisioning the technology, management, financing and politics
for the system. He oversaw its growth from small powerhouses for construction
on the aqueduct to prominence as the largest municipal power system in the
country. Cosmopolitan magazine, in a 1947 article, noted, “Probably nobody has
contributed more to the creation of the phenomenal Western metropolis than
Ezra Frederick Scattergood.”
40

Figure 1.8: Ezra F. Scattergood (1871-1947). Source: waterandpower.org.

39
Soifer, "Water and Power for Los Angeles," 231.
40
"Ezra Scattergood Biography," Water and Power Associates, March 21, 2018,
https://waterandpower.org/Ezra_Scattergood_Biography.html.

19
Born in 1871, Scattergood received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical
Engineering from Rutgers University in 1893 and a Master’s degree in
Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University. He worked as a professor of
electricity and experimental engineering at the technological branch of the
University of Georgia in Atlanta before moving to Los Angeles in 1902. Upon
arrival, he went to work for the Huntington railroad interests erecting electrical
power machinery before shifting to a job as an investigating, testing, and
designing engineer for private electric utility companies.
41

In 1906, he opened a private consulting office from which he was hired by the
Public Service Commission to plan and develop hydroelectric power for the
construction of the Los Angeles Owens River Aqueduct. His small projects, such
as power plants at the end of a tunnel under Elizabeth Lake, both powered the
ongoing aqueduct construction but also generated enough revenue through the
sale of extra power to cover the cost of their own construction. Enlarging this
model, Scattergood envisioned a symbiotic water and power system under
municipal control that would assure Los Angeles growth and prosperity.

In 1909, Scattergood was appointed Chief Electrical Engineer of the Bureau of
Los Angeles Aqueduct Power. Two years later, when voters approved an
amendment to establish a municipal power system, the Bureau of Power and
Light, he was again named Chief Electrical Engineer. Scattergood began by
developing a system of hydroelectric plants along the Aqueduct that could also
supply the City, and their success allowed the Bureau to buy out most of the
private power companies in Los Angeles. In 1922, the Bureau purchased the
Southern California Edison distribution system, acquiring facilities it had not
before possessed.

41
Biographical information on Scattergood before 1925 is based on The Intake, an internal
employee publication.: "Ezra F. Scattergood, Chief Electrical Engineer and General Manager,
Bureau of Power and Light, Department of Water and Power," The Intake 2, no. 9 (September
1925): 1-3. Additional information and data after 1925 is based on "Ezra Scattergood Biography,"
Water and Power Associates, March 21, 2018,
https://waterandpower.org/Ezra_Scattergood_Biography.html.

20
By 1925, the department had more than 3000 employees serving more than
200,000 customers and nearly all local industry.
42
Los Angeles became known
for supplying consumer electricity and street lighting at lower rates than those in
any other large city in the country with while reporting a profit.

While the arrival of water in 1913 unleashed a massive population boom, the
distribution of electricity across the metropolis energized industrial and economic
growth. Scattergood recognized the limits of a hydroelectric supply reliant on the
unreliable snowfall of the Sierra and, by the early 1920s, began pushing for
Federal support of the Colorado River project at Boulder Canyon that would
become Hoover Dam. In 1928, Congress passed legislation to begin construction
of the massive dam and hydroelectric power plant and Scattergood negotiated an
additional $23 million loan to finance the long distance transmission system that
would carry electricity across 266 miles to Los Angeles. The Boulder
Transmission Line was completed in 1936, the longest and highest voltage
transmission system in the world at its dedication.
43
The following year, the
Bureau of Power and Light merged with the Bureau of Water Works and Supply
to form the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power with Scattergood still in
his leadership role. Scattergood served on the National Power Policy Committee
on Preparedness under Roosevelt and retired as Chief Electrical Engineer and
General Manager in 1940, continuing as an advisory engineer until his death in
1947.

Under Scattergood, the power system was generally organized under four
divisions: Operating, Generation Transmission Construction, Distribution
Construction, and Business.
44
The Operating Division oversaw all operation and
maintenance of power plants, high voltage transmission lines, substations, shops,

42
"Ezra F. Scattergood, Chief Electrical Engineer and General Manager, Bureau of Power and
Light, Department of Water and Power," The Intake 2, no. 9 (September 1925): 2.
43
Water and Power Associates, Ibid.
44
Layne, Water and Power for a Great City, 193.

21
yards, warehouses, transportation, and communication.
45
The two construction
divisions oversaw engineering, design, and construction for generating,
transmission, receiving, and distributing functions; for industrial and commercial
stations; and for all general structures. They managed a drafting room as well as
testing laboratories.
46
The Business Division oversaw metering, billing, usage,
rates, and sales, particularly the wooing of customers from the private providers.
It served domestic, commercial, industrial, and street lighting accounts. To
increase power usage and gain customers, the Business Division also had a
promotional arm that demonstrated new technologies for heating, cooling,
lighting, equipment and appliances. Neighborhood business offices, introduced in
the 1930s, incorporated showrooms and education programs to encourage
purchases.

45
It was led by Thomas A. Panter, Engineer in Charge of Operations from 1916 until his death in
1939. Panter began working on the aqueduct in 1908 as an employee in Scattergood’s consulting
firm. He was instrumental in planning the San Francisquito Power Plant No. 1, the transmission
line system from the aqueduct to the city, and the St. John Substation No. 1."Obituary, Thomas
Alfred Panter," IEEE Xplore Digital Library, accessed April 23, 2018,
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=6431906. "Thomas A. Panter, Electrical
Engineer in Charge of Operation, Bureau of Power and Light," The Intake 3, no. 1 (January
1926): 1.
46
Generation Transmission Construction was led by Helmuth Clifton Gardett, Electrical Engineer
in Charge of Power Construction from 1911 until 1940 when he became Chief Electrical Engineer
and General Manager, taking over as Scattergood retired. Gardett joined Scattergood’s
consulting practice in 1907, designing the small hydroelectric plants for construction on the
aqueduct. He was engineer for construction of San Francisquito Power Plant No. 1, the
transmission system from the aqueduct to the city, and the St. John Substation No. 1. "Helmuth
Clifton Gardett, Electrical Engineer in Charge of Generation and Transmission," The Intake 3, no.
3 (March 1926): 1-2. Distribution Construction was led by Carl A. Heinze, Layne, Water and
Power for a Great City, 193.

22

Chapter 2: How the Power System Works
47

All large urban electrical power providers share a common structure of integrated
generation, transmission, and distribution systems. (Figure 2.1) Los Angeles
follows this same model but is unique in the breadth of area it serves – 465
square miles in 2017 – and in the long distances it reaches to access energy
sources. This chapter will describe how power moves from source to consumer
and relate this sequence to the prewar buildings specific to each phase of the
transfer. Appendix B provides an inventory of the system’s generating, switching,
and receiving facilities through 1991. Appendix C describes the expansive scope
of the Los Angeles system in 2017.

Figure 2.1: From Generation to Consumption. Source: Los Angeles Department of Water +
Power Briefing Book 2017-2018.

Power Generation
Generation produces power by turning turbines that convert mechanical energy
into electrical energy. Energy for the prewar municipal power system came from
hydropower, which replaced the wood, coal, and oil often used by the private
nineteenth century providers. The system diversified its sources in the postwar
period to again use fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, petroleum, and other gases) as
well as nuclear energy. The twenty-first century has moved toward renewable

47
The information in this chapter relies on four sources: "Electrical Grid," Energy Education,
accessed May 25, 2018, http://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Electrical_grid; Kate Ascher, "Power,"
in The Works: Anatomy of a City(New York: Penguin Press, 2005), 91-109; "LADWP Power:
Electricity in Los Angeles," The Lay of the Land, Winter 2014, Water and Power; and Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power, Briefing Book 2017-2018, report, August 2017, https://s3-us-
west-2.amazonaws.com/ladwp-jtti/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/09/08143247/Briefing-Book-
Rolling-PDF.pdf.

23
sources (hydropower, wind, biomass, solar, geothermal, and pumped- storage
hydropower).
48
Technologies that generate electricity from stored power
(electrochemical batteries, fuel cells, solar photovoltaic cells, and thermoelectric
generators) are an increasing focus of research and market share.

The first power generating plants in the Los Angeles system enabled aqueduct
construction at Cottonwood (1908) and Division Creek (1909). (Figure 2.2) They
were functional industrial structures while the first two generating plants in the
urban system, San Francisquito Power Plants No. 1 (1917) and No. 2 (1920)
were polished civic buildings housing immense generating capacity. (Figure 2.3)
In the ensuing years, additional smaller local power plants were built adjacent to
city reservoir locations at Franklin (1921) and San Fernando (1922). More power
plants were added along the aqueduct at Big Pine (1925), where an additional
high-elevation feeder creek was harnessed, and at Haiwee (1927) in conjunction
with the construction of the Haiwee Reservoirs. Hoover Dam (1936) would
become the largest generating plant in the system. (Figure 2.4)

Figure 2.2: Cottonwood Creek Power Plant (1908, left) and Division Creek Power Plant No. 1
(1909, right). Source: Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of
Los Angeles.

48
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Briefing Book 2017-2018, report, August 2017,
Power System, https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ladwp-jtti/wp-
content/uploads/sites/3/2017/09/08143247/Briefing-Book-Rolling-PDF.pdf.

24

Figure 2.3: San Francisquito Power Plant No. 1, nd. (left) and Pelton Wheel in Power Plant No. 1
during construction, 1916 (right). Source: waterandpower.org.

Figure 2.4: Upper generator room at Hoover Dam on the Nevada side showing eight generators.
The Arizona generator room contains nine, circa 1936. Source: Source: Historical Photo
Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

25
Power Transmission
Transmission moves newly-created electricity from generating plants to receiving
stations over high-voltage power lines. Converter and switching stations lie
between the two and work in concert with them.
49
At the generating plants,
transformer banks increase (step up) voltage and send it to transmission lines.
Converter stations convert direct current (DC) from long-distance high voltage to
alternating current (AC) synchronized with the Los Angeles power grid. Switching
stations manage energy flow between generating plants and receiving stations,
redirecting current from one plant or district to another or to back up lines as
needed. They can also isolate sections of current on which trouble develops
before it affects service across the system. At the receiving station, transformer
banks reduce (step down) the voltage.

Two main transmission lines supplied the prewar system. A 233-mile length
connected the aqueduct to the downtown St. John Receiving Station
A/Distributing Station No. 1. It entered service in 1917. A 266-mile length
stretched between Hoover Dam and Century/Receiving Station B in South Los
Angeles. In the city, both sets of towers occupied their own right of way along
98
th
Street, a broad landscaped feature that continues to be a distinctive urban
feature. It entered service in 1936. (Figure 2.5)

49
Converting stations were built at Sylmar (1971) to serve the Washington Pacific DC Intertie and
at Adelanto (1986) to serve the Utah Intermountain Power Plant. None were built in the prewar
period.

26

Figure 2.5: 115kV transmission tower at Power Plant No. 1, 1928 (left). Double-circuit tower
carrying 286,000-volt lines from Hoover Dam to Los Angeles, 1935 (right). Source: Historical
Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

The system built two switching stations to convert the high voltage current for
municipal use in the prewar period. Olive Switching Station (1917), part of the
original Aqueduct system, was located midway between San Francisquito Power
Plant No. 1 and the St. John Receiving Station A/Distributing Station No. 1.
Victorville Switching Station (1936), the second in the system, was located
midway between Hoover Dam and Century Receiving Station B. It was the
primary switch and circuit breaker on the Hoover Dam transmission line. (Figure
2.6)

Figure 2.6: Olive Switching Station, n.d. (left). Victorville Switching Station, 1930s (right). Source:
Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

27
Receiving stations are the bridge between power plants and local distribution.
Each station serves a large district and supplies power to neighborhood
distribution stations within that district. High voltage lines from the power plant
enter the grid at receiving stations where transformer banks adjust the power,
stepping it down from the 115,000- 230,000 volt range to 34,500 volts or less.
Power then exits the receiving station on below- or above-ground wires to
neighborhood distributing stations.

Six receiving stations served the city before 1945. Typically several city blocks or
even acres in scale, they are fed by multiple high voltage lines. They comprise a
control building, or “house,” for technicians and monitoring equipment and
expansive fenced open-air yards containing racks and rows of equipment on top
of low concrete pads. Reduced-voltage from each receiving station is conveyed
to distributing stations located in each district neighborhood through a network of
above- and below-ground transmission lines.
50

St. John Receiving Station A (1917) received the aqueduct transmission line,
transferred that power among other stations, and served downtown. Century
Receiving Station B (1926) received the Boulder Dam transmission line after
1936, transferred that power among other stations, and served South Los
Angeles.
51
Wilmington Receiving Station C (1928) served the harbor area.
Toluca Receiving Station E (1937) served the San Fernando Valley. Velasco
Receiving Station F (1937) served East Los Angeles. Fairfax Receiving Station D
(1943) served the emerging westside. (Figures 2.7-2.11)

50
"Electrical Transmission," Energy Education, accessed May 25, 2018,
http://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Electrical_transmission.
51
Receiving Station B would be the single entry point for power from the dam. Figure 2.9 shows
the existing receiving station and proposed towers. Towers at the bottom receive power from the
dam, towers at the top transmit power to Gramercy Switching Station. Both sets of towers have
their own right of way and run along 98
th
Street in south Los Angeles, a broad median that is a
distinctive urban feature. Similarly, Whitnall Highway Power Corridor in the San Fernando Valley
is the right of way for the original transmission tower from the Aqueduct.
Los Angeles Citywide Historic Context Statement: Municipal Water and Power, 1902-1980,
working paper (Los Angeles: SurveyLA, City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning, 2017),
63-64.

28

Figure 2.7: Receiving Station B, 1927. Source: Source: Historical Photo Collection of the
Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 2.8: Receiving Station B, 2015. Source: Center for Land Use Interpretation.

29

Figure 2.9: Ezra Scattergood sketch for receiving yard to be developed around Receiving Station
B in preparation for the arrival of power from Boulder Dam. Source: Source: “Engineering
Features of the Boulder Dam-Los Angeles Lines,” Electrical Engineering, May 1935.

Figure 2.10: Aerial View Receiving Station B with surrounding yard after completion, circa 1937.
Source: 37
th
Annual Report, 1938. P 110.

30

Figure 2.11: Toluca Receiving Station E, 2018 (left). Control Room Century Receiving Station B,
1936 (right). Source: Author (left) and Water and Power Associates Historical Archives, Courtesy
of Rex Atwell (right).

Power Distribution
Distributing stations are the last transfer point in the higher-voltage chain.
They perform five functions: voltage transformation, switching, protection, voltage
regulation, and metering.

• Transformers step down voltage to the primary distribution voltage level.
• Switchgear carry and interrupt normal load current and disconnect
portions of the network when needed.
• Circuit breakers, reclosers, and fuses are protective elements, providing a
means of managing extremes that could damage equipment or threaten
lives. Circuit breakers carry and interrupt normal load current just like
switches, but also interrupt short-circuit (fault) current; reclosers, like
circuit breakers, interrupt fault current but can also reopen and reclose
current a predetermined number of times before they lockout; fuses carry
a defined current load and interrupt a defined short-circuit current.
• Voltage regulators manage variation in voltage along feeder lines that
leave the substation, overcoming the natural tendency of current to
degrade over distance.

31
• Meters record existing current and minimum and maximum current flows
over specific time periods so that overall performance can be managed.

Power leaves a distributing station over feeders to above ground poles and
underground lines. Voltage is adjusted a final time at local transformer boxes or
on pole-top transformers, before being delivered to individual customers via
service-drop lines to meters.

Forty-five distributing stations were in service by 1945. Their dispersal over the
Los Angeles basin reflects the city’s growth pattern in each decade. Stations built
before 1929 served the downtown, east, south, and harbor areas of the city.
Those built between 1930 and 1949 reflected the city’s westward expansion and
early development in the San Fernando Valley. Stations in the postwar period
illustrate the suburbanization and industrialization of the remaining agricultural
zones to the southwest of downtown, throughout the San Fernando Valley, and
at the harbor. (Figure 2.12) Distributing stations are discussed in more detail in
Chapter 4.

32

Figure 2.12: Generating, Receiving, and Distributing Facilities, 1917-post 1990. Source: Base
map courtesy of Professor Martin H. Krieger, Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of
Southern California.

33

Chapter 3: Image of the Power System

Creating an Aesthetic: Frederick Louis Roehrig
The form, materials, and image of the buildings constructed for Los Angeles’
World War II power system reflect the vision of the influential turn-of-the-century
architect, Frederick Louis Roehrig. Permit and documentary evidence associate
him with more than half of the generating, receiving, and distributing buildings
dating from 1912 through the mid- 1930s, most in Period Revival styles.
52
The Art
Deco and Moderne buildings of the mid-1930s to mid-1940s, while lacking direct
attribution, exhibit similar construction and an equally conscious attention to
image. The unity of the prewar buildings suggests the overarching impact of
Roehrig’s program if not his hand.
53
The City Beautiful movement and the
system’s own leadership were additional influences on the prewar buildings.
They are discussed later in the chapter.
This body of work, industrial structures for a public client, was a surprising coda
to Roehrig’s earlier career as an architect of choice for wealthy eastern and
Midwestern patrons transplanted to Southern California.

Roehrig (1857-1948)
was a graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
54
After studying in
Europe and practicing in the East, he migrated to California, opening offices in
Pasadena in 1895 and Los Angeles in 1890.
55
In 1907, he was elected secretary
and treasurer of the southern district of the State Board of Architecture, a position
he maintained for many years.
56
Roehrig appears to have achieved almost
instant and prolific success with his newly-arrived high-society clientele and with
the entrepreneurs profiting from development unleashed by the railroads. The

52
See Appendices D and E, Inventories for Distributing Stations, 1917-1945.
53
Further research is needed to determine the full list of buildings that Roehrig designed for the
power system.
54
"Frederick L. Roehrig Will Be Buried Today," Los Angeles Times, October 11, 1948.
55
Who's Who in the Pacific Southwest (Los Angeles: Times Mirror Printing and Binding House,
1913), 318.
56
Architect and Engineer of California, April 1907, 87.

34
twenty-five years between his arrival and 1910 generated his best-known work:
fine houses, several hotels, and a handful of public buildings.
57

Roehrig’s acclaimed projects included his residences for Andrew McNally
(Altadena, 1887), William Stanton (Pasadena, 1891), Frederick Hastings Rindge
(Los Angeles, 1901), William E. Ramsey (Los Angeles, 1908), Louise Hugus
(Pasadena, 1908), James Scoville (Pasadena, 1909), and William H. Bartlett
(Montecito, 1910).
58
In addition, his output included at least ten mansions along
Pasadena’s Orange Grove Avenue and other large houses in prestigious
enclaves such as West Adams, Hollywood, and Santa Monica.
59
Roehrig’s hotels,
designed to serve seasonal vacationers, included the Hotel Green (1893) and
Castle Green Annex (1898) in Pasadena and the Hotel Castaneda (Las Vegas,
New Mexico, 1898), the latter completed for the Fred Harvey Company. His
institutional buildings included the Pasadena Hospital (Pasadena, 1901), First
Presbyterian Church (Pasadena, 1908), and the Alhambra Public Library
(Alhambra, 1913).
60
A number of his buildings are listed on the National Register
of Historic Places and are designated local landmarks.
Roehrig’s commissions for private clients seem to have diminished after 1910;
fewer projects after that date appear to have been published or designated.
Among Roehrig’s later residential clients were Ezra Scattergood, by then Chief
Electrical Engineer for the Bureau of Power and Light, and Helmuth Clifton
Gardett, Electrical Engineer in Charge of Power Construction for whom he

57
Sources for information on Roehrig’s building’s include Michael Locke, "Frederick L. Roehrig
Architect (1857-1948)," Fluidr, accessed March 12, 2018,
http://www.fluidr.com/photos/michael_locke/sets/72157630680106664 and "Roehrig, Frederick
L., Architect (Practice)," PCAD, March 12, 2018, http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/firm/2181/.
58
Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer 5 (July 23, 1910): 10.
59
John Crosse, "Frederick L. Roehrig, The Millionaire's Architect," Southern California
Architectural History, February 23, 2011, https://socalarchhistory.blogspot.com/2011/02/frederick-
lewis-roehrig-architect.html.
60
Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer 11 (July 5, 1913): 15.

35

designed houses in 1914.
61
How Roehrig came to know Scattergood and
Gardett or work for the power system is unclear.
In 1912, the Aqueduct Advisory Board announced Roehrig as consulting
architect for two of the first four buildings in the power system, San Francisquito
Powerhouse No. 1 and St. John Substation.
62
Completed in 1917, both would
have symbolic import, marking the point of origin and the destination for the
City’s power investment. Powerhouse No. 1, located in Santa Clarita, would
convert the flow of aqueduct water to hydroelectric power. (Figures 3.1,3.2) That
power would be transmitted over long-distance lines through the Olive Switching
Station in the San Fernando Valley to the St. John Substation, located on the Los
Angeles River near downtown.
63
(Figures 3.3, 3.4) This placed aqueduct power
at the heart of the metropolis for industrial, commercial, office and residential use.

61
The Scattergood residence was located in Highland Park. Pauline O'Connor, "The Century-Old
Scattergood Craftsman House Needs a Hero," CurbedLA, Los Angeles Historic Preservation,
accessed 2014, https://la.curbed.com/2014/10/13/10035924/the-centuryold-scattergood-
craftsman-house-needs-a-hero. The Gardett residence was located in Sierra Vista, now El
Sereno. "Sierra Vista," Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer 12 (April 25, 1914): 39.
62
Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer 9 (August 3, 1912): 17. St. John Substation included
Receiving Station A and Distributing Station No. 1.
63
Historic American Building Survey (HABS), Olive Switching Station, report no. CA-2664.
The Olive Switching Station and transmission lines running through it connected San Francisquito
with downtown Los Angeles. This allowed the first delivery of Aqueduct power. Like the other
initial buildings, Olive was commissioned in 1912 and completed in 1917. Its architect is
unidentified. Olive divided the transmission line into sections, making it possible to isolate any
faulty circuit without affecting overall service. It also regulated the aqueduct pumps bringing water
into the city. Olive was demolished after 1994.

36

Figure 3.1: San Francisquito Power Plant No. 1, 1917. Source: Historical Photo Collection of the
Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 3.2: San Francisquito Power Plant No. 1, circa 2018. Source: nonplused.org,
http://nonplused.org/panos/dwp_sf1/index.html, accessed September 2018. (The original Power
Plant No.1 was destroyed by the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in 1928. It was rebuilt and
returned to operation in less than one year.)

37

Figure 3.3: St. John Receiving/Distributing Station No. 1, circa 1917. Source: Historical Photo
Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 3.4: St. John Receiving/Distributing Station No. 1, circa 2017. Source: googleearth.com.

38
In short order, Roehrig would design two other initial buildings in the system. The
facility known as Garvanza Distributing Station No. 2 (1916/17), located in
Highland Park, initiated suburban electrical service. (Figures 3.5, 3.6) The San
Francisquito Power Plant No. 2 (1920) added already needed capacity to the
existing plant at Santa Clarita. (Figures 3.7,3.8) With these four buildings,
Roehrig merged an elegantly executed industrial vernacular with a decorative
and stylistic approach that would characterize the next two and one-half decades
of design. His program introduced a deliberately bold imagery that placed the
power system on a footing equal to that of the recently completed water system.
Together, they proclaimed the world-class ambitions of an emerging Los Angeles.

Figure 3.5: Garvanza Distributing Station No. 2, circa 1917. Source: Historical Photo Collection of
the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

39

Figure 3.6: Garvanza Distributing Station No. 2, circa 1917. Source: Center for Land Use
Interpretation.

Figure 3.7: San Francisquito Power Plant No. 2, 1929. Source: www.waterandpower.org.

40

Figure 3.8: San Francisquito Power Plant No. 2, 2016. Source: www.mapio.net.
By the mid-1930s, Roehrig had designed the two primary generating plants, at
least thirteen of the new distributing stations in the system, and two of the three
existing receiving stations.
64
He had developed a prototype massing to contain
equipment, a standard material palette, and a decorative strategy that could be
varied to express a range of styles. This standardization appeared on at least five
distributing stations designed between 1924 and 1926, all built from the same set
of plans with only slight changes in appearance.
65
(Figures 3.9-3.11) Notes

64
This included San Francisquito No. 1 and 2; Distributing Stations 1-5, 9,11,13, 15, 19, 29, 30,
44; and the St. John and Century Receiving Station. Additional buildings with similar attributes
were built in this same period.
65
Permit information indicates that Distributing Stations Mateo 5, Corto 11, Normandie 13,
Commonwealth 15, and Trinity 19 were constructed using the same plans. Further, notes dated
May 13, 1928, accompanying photographs of Normandie Distributing Station 13 in the Historical
Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles, state: “Five stations,
of which Station 13 is the fifth, have been constructed from one set of drawings, thus effecting a
great saving not alone in engineering and drafting expenditures, but also in actual construction
costs, because the crews have become familiar with the standardized layout and accomplish
results with greater efficiency and precision. The first cost is not the only item benefited by
uniform construction, for experience has proven that subsequent operations are simplified and
improved, and maintenance costs reduced thereby.” Additional stations with similar attributes
were built in the same period; further research is needed to identify whether they used the same
plan sets.

41
accompanying photographs of Normandie Distributing Station No. 13 stated, “In
selecting a type of building for the standard station, the architect adhered to the
Grecian edifice which, in its massiveness, simplicity, and symmetry, symbolized
the permanence, the utility, and the stability of the power system.”
66

Figure 3.9: Mateo Distributing Station No. 5 (1933) (left) and Corto Distributing Station No. 11
(1974) (right). Source: Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of
Los Angeles.

Figure 3.10: Normandie Distributing Station No. 13 (1933) (left) and Commonwealth Distributing
Station No. 15 (circa 1933) (right). Source: Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water
and Power, City of Los Angeles.

66
Notes dated May 13, 1928 accompanying photographs of Normandie Distributing Station 13 in
the Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles, Ibid.

42

Figure 3.11: Trinity Distributing Station No. 19 (circa 1933). Source: Historical Photo Collection of
the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

In an article for the November 1929 issue of Architect and Engineer, Roehrig –
now identified as “Architect for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power”
- wrote about the program.
67
By then, more than a decade of “industrial
structures (had been) erected by the Department” for the “largest municipally
owned electric utility in the United States.” These, he noted, housed electrical
equipment “in structures befitting the pride…manifested in [Los Angeles’]
churches, libraries, and other civic buildings.” The aim of the Department of
Water and Power was to “make its buildings not merely a housing for electrical
equipment but…an architectural expression of dignity and repose in keeping with
their function” as well as “aesthetic assets” in their neighborhoods.
To achieve this goal, the Department “selected designs of simple lines, good
proportions” and a single construction principle: the use of “square headed
openings.” The buildings were built with “reinforced concrete walls and floor slabs
or with steel frames enclosed in brickwork.” The plans, “usually rectangular,” had
“flat roofs to facilitate the entrance of line wires” and to accommodate easy
expansion or reconfiguring within the original structure. Single story buildings

67
Frederick L. Roehrig, "Los Angeles Power and Light Plants," Architect and Engineer 99
(November 1929): 29, 75-79. Information in the following three paragraphs derives from this
article. An article with the same title by Roehrig, was published one year later in Building Age
magazine. Frederick L. Roehrig, “Los Angeles Power and Light Plants,” Building Age 52 (1930):
60. Additional research is needed to clarify whether Roehrig continued as a consulting architect
after his 1912 assignment or acted as a staff architect as suggested in the 1929 article.

43
were designed to emphasize their horizontality; two-story buildings, primarily the
distributing plants, were organized with one-story wings to either side housing
transformers. The exteriors were “mostly stuccoed” and any ornament was of
“precast stone placed to accentuate constructive details and masses.”
The article went on to describe aesthetic treatments that elevated the otherwise
industrial buildings and could be repeated on other buildings in the system. At
Receiving Station B, the concrete walls were “dressed down with a surface
grinder” to leave form marks and surface texture. At Distributing Station No. 44, a
frieze and decorative panels were made of pre-cast stone, colored to harmonize
with the stucco walls; the seal of the Los Angeles was incorporated as a central
decorative feature, flanked by lions symbolizing power. Wrought iron gates at
entrances were included to convey strength and interest. The same article
mentions the work at Century Receiving Station B (1926) and Wilmington
Receiving Station C (1928) implying the Roehrig was also in charge of design for
these facilities. Photographs of three projects depicted decorative alternatives in
Neoclassical, Renaissance Revival, and Spanish Colonial styles, illustrating the
variation possible within the general prototype.
68
(Figures 3.12-3.15)

68
These were Trinity Distributing Station No. 19 (1925/26), Venice Distributing Station No. 44
(1928), and the San Francisquito Power Plant No. 2 (1920).

44

Figure 3.12: Trinity Distributing Station No. 19, circa 1926. Source: Historical Photo Collection of
the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 3.13: Trinity Distributing Station No. 19, 2018. Source: Author.

45

Figure 3.14: Venice Distributing Station No. 44, 1928. Source: Historical Photo Collection of the
Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 3.15: Venice Distributing Station No. 44, 2018. Source: GoogleEarth.

46
During the 1930s, the preferred style for the system moved from an increasingly
streamlined historicist imagery toward the contemporary Art Deco and Moderne.
Two buildings are clearly attributed to Roehrig in this decade - Pacific Palisades
Distributing Station No. 29 and Eagle Rock Distributing Station No. 30, both in
the PWA Moderne style.
69
(Figures 3.16-3.19) Acquisition of the Los Angeles
Gas and Electric Company in 1937 shifted the focus for several years to
technology integration, building upgrades, and signage replacement on their
facilities.

Figure 3.16: Pacific Palisades Distributing Station No. 29, 1935. Source: Historical Photo
Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

69
Notes accompanying photographs of Pacific Palisades Distributing Station No. 29 in the
Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles state that
Eagle Rock “construction will be similar to the Palisades Station except that No. 30 will be
considerably larger.” Further research is needed to verify if other power system buildings in this
period are linked to Roehrig.

47

Figure 3.17: Pacific Palisades Distributing Station No. 29, 2015 Source: Center for Land Use
Interpretation.

Figure 3.18: Eagle Rock Distributing Station No. 30, 1937. Source: Historical Photo Collection of
the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

48

Figure 3.19: Eagle Rock Distributing Station No. 30, 2015 Source: Center for Land Use
Interpretation.

Municipal Art Commission
Roehrig’s initial program for the system was informed by the then dominant
philosophy of the City Beautiful movement and influenced by the Los Angeles
Municipal Art Commission. City Beautiful ideas had been popularized at World’s
Fairs in (1893), Buffalo (1901), and St. Louis (1904) and in the widely published
McMillan Plan for Washington, D. C. (1902).
70
The movement’s baroque planning
concepts were viewed as antidotes to urban congestion and industrial grime. Its
classical imagery was admired as a metaphor for good governance, responsible
citizenship, and an elevated civic realm. Embraced by east coast elite, the
movement had an authority that was particularly appealing to newer cities eager
to assert their prominence.
In this milieu, the Los Angeles City Council organized a Public Art Committee in
1903, renamed the Municipal Art Commission in 1905. Its mission was civic
beautification.
71
By 1911, that directive was enlarged by city charter to include

70
Kenneth A. Breisch, The Los Angeles Central Library, Building an Architectural Icon 1872-
1933 (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2016), 32-33.
71
The Municipal Art Commission is now known as the Department of Cultural Affairs. It continues
to play a review and advisory role for public buildings.

49
the “review of artistic merits of plans for public buildings and infrastructure.”
72
All
City organizations involved in planning and construction went before the
Commission and all designs for public structures sustained their review.
Buildings for the power system would have undergone Commission evaluation
and surely embody its stylistic recommendations over the decades.
73

The Commission would have been particularly conversant with the writings of
Charles Mulford Robinson, City Beautiful’s most visible proponent. A journalist
and author, his treatises on city design had made him a leader in the emerging
discipline of urban planning. His 1903 book, Modern Civic Art, succinctly
described the mission of just such an oversight organization, noting “as the city
grows larger and its resources increase, … public works become more
spectacular and permanent, so that mistakes in them last a long time and are
striking. The need of artistic guidance is…keenly felt…the value of an
authoritative aesthetic control is perceived.”
74

By 1906, Los Angeles had hired Robinson to develop a comprehensive city plan.
His 1907 report, “Los Angeles: The City Beautiful” recommended public
improvements that eventually resulted in the bridges along the Los Angeles River,
City Hall, and Union Station. While City Beautiful privileged Neoclassism,
Robinson and city leaders borrowed eclectically from high European sources
including the Spanish Colonial and Mediterranean idioms thought suitable as
reflections of the region’s cultural identity. As architectural tastes changed, so too
did the recommendations of the Commission: Neoclassicism gave way to Art
Deco and then Moderne styles for civic buildings and infrastructure projects. The
Commission’s influence waned in and after the 1940s as the money for public
projects increasingly came from state and federal rather than city coffers. Still,

72
Gloria Ricci Lothrop, "The Development of the Los Angeles Public Library and the Cultural
Affairs Department," in The Development of Los Angeles City Government: An Institutional
History, 1850-2000, ed. Hynda Rudd, vol. 2 (Los Angeles: City of Los Angeles Historical Society,
2007), 636.
73
Additional research in the meeting minutes and annual reports of the Commission is needed to
trace their review of individual power system buildings.
74
Charles Mulford Robinson, Modern Civic Art or The City Made Beautiful (New York: G. P.
Putnam's Sons: The Knickerbocker Press, 1903), 21.

50
while the image changed, the attitude of dignity and permanence meant to
inspire civic pride remained. It seems clear that the variety of styles but
consistency of outlook for buildings in the prewar power system echoed this
approach.

51

Chapter 4: Distributing Stations in the Power System
Powering the Neighborhoods
“Whoever brings the water, brings the people,” wrote William Mulholland.
75
His
prophecy was realized even as the aqueduct and power system were being built.
Los Angeles leapt into the twentieth century in a sprint. Between 1900 and 1940,
its area grew eightfold. Annexation and consolidation added swathes of land to
the south, west, and north. The population grew fifteen times larger. (Table 4.1)

Area in Square Miles Annexations/Consolidations Population
1890 30.3 50,395
1895 Highland Park
1896 Southern and Western
1899 Garvanza
University

1900 44.35 102,479
1906 Shoestring Strip
1909 Wilmington
San Pedro
Colegrove-Cahuenga-Los Feliz

1910 86.25 Hollywood
East Hollywood-Ivanhoe-
Tropico
319,198
1912 Arroyo Seco
1915 Bairdstown
Palms
San Fernando Valley

1916 Occidental
Westgate

1920 363.85 576,673
1922 Sawtelle
1923 Hyde Park
Eagle Rock

1925 Venice
1926 Barnes City
Watts

1930 441.74 1,238,048
1932 Tujunga
1940 450.83 1,504,277
1950 453.51 1,970,458
Table 4.1 Source: Los Angeles Almanac, accessed June 12, 2018,
http://www.laalmanac.com/index.php.

75
Attributed to Mulholland in Louis Sahagun, "There It Is - Take It: A Century of Marvel and
Controversy," Los Angeles Times, October 28, 2013.

52

Los Angeles’ relentless expansion would dictate the next phase in the power
system’s growth: construction of an extensive distributing system to feed power
into fast-emerging neighborhoods and commercial/ industrial zones. This chapter
will focus on the evolution of the distributing system, note the stylistic
development of the distributing stations, and illustrate their construction
chronology to the decade-by-decade expansion of Los Angeles. Appendices D
and E provide inventories of distributing stations from 1916 through 1945 with
information about their Department of Water and Power-assigned number and
station name, location, date in service and permit date, relevant permit
information, construction value, ownership, designer, engineer, historic style and
historic status. Appendix D lists the stations using the station number assigned
by the Department of Water and Power; Appendix E lists the same stations by
the date the Department of Water and Power put them in service.

Functionality
Between 1917 and 1945, the system would build more than twenty new
distributing stations. Acquisition of the Southern California Edison distributing
system in 1922 brought at least one facility into the system - a 1903 John
Parkinson office and substation building – that would became Fourth Street
Distributing Station No. 12. The purchase of Los Angeles Gas and Electric in
1937 added at least ten additional buildings as well.

With St. John Receiving Station A/Distributing Station No. 1 and Garvanza
Distributing Station No. 2 complete, the Bureau developed a general plan for
laying the distribution system across an as yet unknown territory. Their scheme
was organized as a series of large geographical districts.
76
Each district would
host a receiving station, multiple distributing stations, and an array of

76
The information in this paragraph is based on Board of Water and Power Commissioners, City
of Los Angeles, Water and Power, 51st Annual Report, Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1952, report
(Department of Water and Power, 1952), 17. As discussed in Chapter 2, the districts include St.
John A serving downtown Los Angeles, Century B serving south Los Angeles, Wilmington C
serving the harbor area, Fairfax D serving the west side, Toluca E serving the San Fernando
Valley, and Velasco F serving east Los Angeles.

53
maintenance and support facilities at dispersed sites. The receiving station in
each district would connect to its primary source of high-voltage power and
connect to the receiving station in other districts, forming a “belt”-system around
the city. Individual receiving stations would act as the hub for that district’s
radially-arrayed distributing stations. This concept for a “belt”-system was
adaptable and flexible enough to organize facility growth well into the future.

As discussed in Chapter 2, distributing stations receive high voltage power from
the transmission system and reduce it via transformers to a value suitable for the
local service area. They regulate voltage to ensure a consistent level of power is
delivered to the customer. Switchgear and voltage regulators manage and
protect the power while meters assess flows so performance can be managed. A
number of the attended stations also controlled their local streetlight circuits,
turning them on and off at large control boards according to schedule.

By 1925, the Annual Report described the system as having three standard
distributing station types: permanent unit, semi-permanent unit, and small
permanent unit without an operator.
77
Permanent stations had already been
tested at San Pedro, Francisco Street, and in Hollywood and would be the model
for the next group of stations – the group of five that would include Mateo,
Commonwealth and others. These would serve the areas of highest consistent
demand with their massive construction and considered siting and style. Semi-
permanent stations would be located where load density was not heavy enough
to warrant a permanent station but was sufficient enough to need the services of
an operator. These were placed in communities expected to grow and would
precede construction of a permanent station. With steel frames, they could be
unbolted and moved to a next location. In 1925 they were being installed at
Sawtelle, Van Nuys, and Hyde Park. Small permanent stations without an
operator were for the least developed areas such as Reseda, Owensmouth, and

77
Bureau of Water Works and Supply, Bureau of Power and Light, 24th Annual Report of the
Board of Public Service Commissioners of the City of Los Angeles, California for the Fiscal Year
Ending June 30, 1925, report (1925), 40-41.

54
Lankershim. They were a structural steel frame with lathe and plaster exterior
and could be electronically controlled from a nearby larger station.

The permanent distributing stations were generally designed as large rectangular
volumes with a basement, a double-height central space surrounded by
equipment balconies, wings or lower height alcoves to either side of the central
volume, and a control room. Permits suggest that the earlier stations had
relatively few rooms while later stations seem to be increasingly subdivided into
purpose-specific spaces.
78
(Figures 4.1-4.5)

Figure 4.1: San Pedro Distributing Station No. 3, circa 1925, showing central space containing a
synchronous condenser that adjusts conditions on the electric power transmission grid. Source:
Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

78
For example Garvanza Distributing Station No. 2 is permitted for two rooms in 1916 and
Slauson Distributing Station No. 4 is permitted for twenty-three rooms in 1928.

55

Figure 4.2: Slauson Distributing Station No. 4, circa 1928 showing regulators that manage
variation in voltage along feeder lines before they leave the substation. Source: Historical Photo
Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 4.3: Fourth Street Distributing Station No. 12, circa 1923 showing the switchboard and
control room. Source: Bureau of Water Works and Supply, Bureau of Power and Light, 22nd
Annual Report of the Board of Public Service Commissioners of the City of Los Angeles,
California for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1923.

56

Figure 4.4: Highland Receiving Station No. 10, 1933 showing the meter control board that has
been miniaturized and is now operable from a single seated position like a pipe organ. Source:
Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 4.5: Fourth Street Distributing Station No. 12, circa 1923 showing the outgoing feeder lines
in the basement. Source: Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City
of Los Angeles.

57
Distributing stations were managed around-the-clock, individually, and on site
from “manned” control rooms through the mid-1950s.
79
Operators were
responsible for routine and emergency operation, controlling and maintaining
components to insure voltage regulation and reliability in the service area. Their
most important job involved testing circuits after they had “relayed.”
80
They also
troubleshot equipment in the station to restore power or avoid damage. Attended
stations shifted to supervisory control, meaning remote control from a central
facility, over a thirty-year period ending in the mid-1980s.

Over 1,000 Power House and Station Operators worked in the system into the
early 1950s, operating the receiving and distributing stations and the hydropower
plants. Their job was considered important and essential. They were employed
as civil servants, progressing from assistant to operator rolls by taking the Civil
Service exam. Employees started in small distributing stations and moved to
larger facilities with seniority. The most experienced position was Senior
Operator, a status rewarded with assignments to the day shift.

Harmony
Because receiving and distributing functions were located inside the city, their
buildings were designed as neighborhood landmarks and, as a whole, are
memorable for their monumental and historically-inspired appearance. They
reflected the system’s effort to contribute to the civic realm, elevate their setting,
and insure the public that their investment in a municipal resource was money
well spent. (Figure 4.6) With competitors Los Angeles Gas and Electric and
Southern California Edison vying for dominance in the market until the late 1930s,
the system’s architecture also established a distinct brand image. Los Angeles
Gas and Electric buildings were generally in the Industrial Vernacular style while
the Southern California Edison facilities tended toward the Spanish Colonial

79
Information in the following three paragraphs is based on “Early Station Operations,"
Waterandpower.org, accessed May 18, 2018,
https://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_Power_Station_Operations.html.
80
Circuit breakers open by operation of protective relays to clear a fault in the field.

58
Revival and Mediterranean idioms – both a marked contrast to the formal
buildings in the Los Angeles system.

Figure 4.6: Construction sign at Longwood Distribution Station No. 8, circa 1925 during
construction of a small electrical yard. Source: Historical Photo Collection of the Department of
Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

As discussed in Chapter 3, the architect Frederick Roehrig was instrumental in
setting the design vision, inventing a replicable form, and standardizing both
materials and construction techniques. While many of the buildings from 1917
through the mid-1930s are attributed to him, others in that period and in the
1940s are credited to the corporate entity or, in some cases to the internal
engineer. Annual Reports and newspaper records did not reference individual
designers or the design process for the buildings however they mentioned, over
many years that design, “in keeping with municipal policy, will harmonize
architecturally with other buildings in the locality.”
81

81
"Bureau Briefs," Los Angeles Times, November 26, 1925.

59
One Bureau-sponsored article in the Los Angeles Times offered insight into the
system’s practical goals of permanence, reliability, and flexibility:
Los Angeles Bureau of Power and Light unit-type distributing stations will
never become obsolete.
82
Regardless of future growth or increased
demands for more power – these stations, with simple additions, can be
enlarged at a minimum expense to meet every requirement.

Designing this new type station has resulted in great economies… It is a
dominant Bureau policy to build for permanency and reliability, anticipating
the future. This searching thought before making capital investments
avoids waste and increases efficiency.

These unit-type stations are equipped with modern apparatus of large
capacity. Even new equipment has been designed by Bureau engineers.
New stations or locations in districts now served by an existing station of
this type will never be needed. Every unit-type station may be enlarged by
building to the sides, roof, or rear without interruption to service.

Nothing
will be torn down. Replacements will be unnecessary. Even the
architecture is lasting – additions will not destroy the original attractive
appearance.

To make all construction of a permanent character is a definite policy of
this department. By doing this, investments are held to lowest limit at all
times. Low investment and operating costs determine rates and Bureau
rates must always be low to its citizen owners.
83

These two department agendas – architectural harmony and functionality –
resulted in stations that were simultaneously stage sets and industrial buildings.
Their formal siting, decorative exteriors, elaborate entry sequences, and often
effusive landscaping were in harmony with an idealized civic realm more than
with “other buildings in the locality.” (Figure 4.7) This reflected the agenda of the
Municipal Art Commission that advanced a self-image of the city as wealthy and
well-heeled that often conflicted with rapidly built and modest surroundings. Like
factories, the station’s large volumes allowed generations of technology to be
added and removed without disturbing the appearance or structure. Their
reinforced-concrete mass protected against earthquakes and dangerous

82
Unit-type stations refers to the Roehrig-formulated buildings of 1924-1924 comprising a central
two-story mass flanked by one-story wings.
83
"Bureau Briefs," Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1925.

60
accidents, also keeping the public safely away from interior hazards. The
ceremonial front doors were rarely opened with working access instead from the
back or sides. These buildings for the ages and for the people kept modern
technology on the interior and citizens outside.

Figure 4.7: Commonwealth Distributing Station No. 15, circa 1930. Source: Historical Photo
Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

The style of the distributing stations evolved over each decade from Neo-
classical with rectangular massing and the Neo-classical unit type in the 1920s to
PWA Moderne in the 1930s to a streamlined Late Moderne in the 1940s. The Los
Angeles Gas and Electric buildings acquired in 1937 introduced a portfolio of
much simpler Industrial Vernacular structures, alien to the stylized Bureau
buildings. The signage on these was changed but their exterior elevations
remained the same. Very few buildings were built between 1938 and the start of
the war. Efforts focused on completion of the transmission system from Hoover
Dam and the continued upgrades and integration of the Los Angeles Gas and
Electric system. The largely urban stations of the 1920s were two-stories in

61
height but as new buildings were built in less densely developed areas,
especially after the mid-1930s, the form shifted toward single-story massing.

Funding for the system was intricately reported during the first decade as the
Bureau began to produce its own revenue and prove or disprove the claim that
the sales of electricity would pay for all construction. Voters approved bond
issues of $3.5 million in 1910 and $6.5 million in 1914 to pay for the early
infrastructure in advance of expected revenues.
84
In 1919, a third bond was
issued for $13.5 million. This would fund acquisition of Edison’s distributing
division for $11 million and allocate $2.5 million toward a three-year expansion of
the core system. By 1923, a bond was voted for $35 million for a three-year
program expanding service in the San Fernando Valley, powering industry in Los
Angeles, and building fourteen new distributing stations to the west and south of
downtown.

As the need for facilities increased, these bond votes and issues became more
frequent and larger though with total costs offset by growing revenue. $17.5
million was released to the Bureau in 1929 to fund yet another three year
program to serve an expected 200,000 new users in that period alone.
85
That
money would purchase land on which to erect 75-miles of transmission line; build
new distributing stations at Hollywood, Hollenbeck Heights, the Wilshire District,
Eagle Rock, Glassell Park, and West Hollywood – the latter area noted as having
tripled its use of electricity since 1922.
86

The Bureau of Power and Light provided power for street lighting, residential,
commercial, and industrial use. It did not serve any of the electric streetcar
companies. As a result, the location of facilities coincided with the areas of
greatest real estate and industrial growth independent of transportation

84
Information in this paragraph is from "Thirty Five Million Dollars More Into Bottomless Pit," Los
Angeles Times, May 27, 1923.
85
"Additions Planned to City Power," Los Angeles Times, April 23, 1929.
86
Ibid.

62
infrastructure. The first wave of expansion between 1920 and 1930 occurred in
the zones closest to downtown, to the west and to the south including at the
harbor. That period also built the largest number of new distributing facilities.
Construction slowed during the 1930s as a result of the Depression except for
modifications to the Los Angeles Gas and Electric buildings acquired in 1937.
The advent of World War II slowed construction again as both labor and
materials transitioned to war production. The following maps show the location of
new distributing stations over the periods 1910-1929, 1930-1949 and 1940-1950.
Each map is followed by images of the stations built in that period. These
pairings illustrate the geographic expansion of the metropolis, the rapid pace at
which zones were populated, and the stylistic evolution that characterized this
system development. (Figures 4.8 – 4.39)

63

Distributing Stations from 1910-1929

Figure 4.8: Distributing Station Construction, 1910-1929. Source: Author. The single dark green
dot represents Garvanza Distributing Station No. 2, 1917.

64

Figure 4.9: Garvanza Distributing Station No. 2, 1916 (left) and 1969 (right). Source: Historical
Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 4.10: Francisco Distributing Station No. 9 1922 (left) and2015 (right). Source: Historical
Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left). Center for
Land Use Interpretation (right).

Figure 4.11: Vine Distributing Station No. 6, 1923 (left) and 2015 (right). Source: Historical Photo
Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left). Center for Land Use
Interpretation (right).

65

Figure 4.12: San Pedro Distributing Station No. 3, 1923. Source: Historical Photo Collection of
the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 4.13: Mateo Distributing Station No. 5, 1925 (left) and 2015 (right). Source: Historical
Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left). Center for
Land Use Interpretation (right).

Figure 4.14: Normandie Distributing Station No. 13, 1925. Source: Historical Photo Collection of
the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left).

66

Figure 4.15: Commonwealth Distributing Station No. 15, 1925 (left) and 2015 (right). Source:
Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left).
Center for Land Use Interpretation (right).

Figure 4.16: Trinity Distributing Station No. 19, 1925 (left) and 2015 (right). Source: Historical
Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left). Center for
Land Use Interpretation (right).

Figure 4.17: Corto Distributing Station No 11, 1926 (left) and 2015 (right). Source: Historical
Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left). Center for
Land Use Interpretation (right).

67

Figure 4.18: Slauson Distributing Station No. 4, 1928. Source: Historical Photo Collection of the
Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 4.19: Venice Distributing Station No. 44, 1928 (left) and 2015 (right). Source: Historical
Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left). Center for
Land Use Interpretation (right).

68

Distributing Stations from 1930-1939

Figure 4.20: Distributing Stations, 1930-1939. Source: Author.

Figure 4.21: Irolo Distributing Station No. 17, 1930 (left) and 2018 (right). Source: Historical Photo
Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left). Author (right).

69

Figure 4.22: Highland Distributing Station No. 10, 1932 (left) and 2015 (right). Source: Historical
Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left). Center for
Land Use Interpretation (right).

Figure 4.23: Palms Distributing Station No. 20, 1933 (left) and 2015 (right). Source: Historical
Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left). Center for
Land Use Interpretation (right).

Figure 4.24: Palisades Distributing Station No. 29, 1935 (left) and 2015 (right). Source: Historical
Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left). Center for
Land Use Interpretation (right).

70

Figure 4.25: Eagle Rock Distributing Station No. 20, 1937. Source: Historical Photo Collection of
the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 4.26: Longfellow Distributing Station No. 8, 1938 (left) and 2015 (right). Source: Historical
Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left). Center for
Land Use Interpretation (right).

71

Distributing Stations from 1940-1949

Figure 4.27: Distributing Stations, 1940-1949. Source: Author.

Figure 4.28: Indiana Distributing Station No. 23, 1941 (left) and 2015 (right). Source: Historical

72
Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left). Center for
Land Use Interpretation (right).

Figure 4.29: North Hollywood Distributing Station No. 35, 1941 (left) and 2015 (right). Source:
Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left).
Center for Land Use Interpretation (right).

73

Distributing Stations Added to the System, 1922 and 1937

Figure 4.30: Fourth Street Distributing Station No. 12, 1903 (left) and 2015 (right) (Southern
California Edison Building acquired 1922). Source: Historical Photo Collection of the Department
of Water and Power, City of Los Angeles (left). Center for Land Use Interpretation (right).

Figure 4.31: 1035 W. 24
th
Street Distributing Station No. 31, 2015. (Los Angeles Gas and
Electric). Source: Center for Land Use Interpretation.

Figure 4.32: Santee Distributing Station No. 34, 1925 (left) and 2015 (right) (Los Angeles Gas
and Electric). Source: Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of
Los Angeles (left). Center for Land Use Interpretation (right).

74

Figure 4.33: Western Distributing Station No. 45, 1926 (left) and 2015 (right). (Los Angeles Gas
and Electric). Source: Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of
Los Angeles (left). Center for Land Use Interpretation (right).

Figure 4.34: Belmont Distributing Station No. 26, 2015. (Los Angeles Gas and Electric). Source:
Center for Land Use Interpretation.

Figure 4.35: Pico Distributing Station No. 43, 1927 (left) and 2015 (right). (Los Angeles Gas and
Electric). Source: Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of Los
Angeles (left). Center for Land Use Interpretation (right).

75

Figure 4.36: Woodlawn Distributing Station No. 32, 1928 (left) and 2015 (right). (Los Angeles Gas
and Electric). Source: Historical Photo Collection of the Department of Water and Power, City of
Los Angeles (left). Center for Land Use Interpretation (right).

Figure 4.37: Hobart Distributing Station No. 38, 2015. (Los Angeles Gas and Electric). Source:
Center for Land Use Interpretation (right).

Figure 4.38: Exposition Distributing Station No. 39, 2015. (Los Angeles Gas and Electric).
Source: Center for Land Use Interpretation.

76

Figure 4.39: Figueroa Distributing Station No. 41, 2015 (Los Angeles Gas and Electric).Source:
Center for Land Use Interpretation.

77

Conclusion
Significance and Eligibility
This thesis has focused on a ubiquitous but relatively unknown building form. My
research has developed a context and timeline for this group of buildings,
associating them with the aqueduct, with the physical expansion of the city, with
exceptional architectural design and civic imagery, and with an important
architect. By substantiating that the individual buildings were part of a
coordinated and long-term development program, it has also provided insight into
the organization of a historic power delivery system in a regional setting. This
information is a useful addition to any integrated evaluation of the system at the
local, state, and national level.

Between 2006 and 2018, the City of Los Angeles conducted its first
comprehensive historic resources survey, called SurveyLA. Funded in part by the
J. Paul Getty Trust, it identified potential historic resources within City limits,
using federal, state, and local criteria as follows:
87

Broad Patterns of History
• National Register Criterion A: Is associated with events that have made
a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history.

• California Register Criterion 1: Is associated with events that have
made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of California’s history
and cultural heritage.

87
"National Register Criteria for Evaluation," National Park Service, National Register
Publications, accessed October 21, 2018,
https://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/nrb15/nrb15_2.htm.; "Criteria for Designation, California
Register of Historical Resources," Office of Historic Preservation, accessed October 21, 2018,
http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21238; "What Makes a Resource Historically Significant,"
Office of Historic Resources, Department of Planning, City of Los Angeles, accessed October 21,
2018, https://preservation.lacity.org/commission/what-makes-resource-historically-significant.

78
• Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument Criterion: The proposed site,
building, or structure reflects or exemplifies the broad cultural, political,
economic, or social history of the nation, state, or City (community).

Significant Persons
• National Register Criterion B: Is associated with the lives of persons
significant in our past.

• California Register Criterion 2: Is associated with the lives of persons
important in our past.

• Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument Criterion: The proposed site,
building or structure is identified with historic personages or with important
events in the main currents of national, state, or local history.

Architecture
• National Register Criterion C: Embodies the distinctive characteristics of
a type, period, or method of construction or that represent the work of a
master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant
and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual
distinction.

• California Register Criterion 3: Embodies the distinctive characteristics
of a type, period, region, or method of construction, or represents the work
of an important creative individual, or possesses high artistic values.

• Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument Criterion: The proposed site,
building, of structure embodies certain distinguishing architectural
characteristics of an architectural-type specimen, inherently valuable for a
study of a period, style, or method of construction; or the proposed site,

79
building, or structure is a notable work of a master builder, designer, or
architect whose individual genius influenced his age.

SurveyLA identified almost all of the prewar power buildings as potentially eligible
for local listing for the National Register (3S – Appears eligible for the National
Register as an individual property through survey evaluation), for the California
Register (3CS – Appears eligible for the California Register as an individual
property through survey evaluation), and for Historic-Cultural Monuments (5S3 –
Appears to be individually eligible for local listing or designation through survey
evaluation).
88

Most of the buildings were deemed eligible under two criteria, specifically
criterion A,1,1 and C,3,3. Criterion A,1,1 means Broad Patterns of History
(National Register Criterion A, California Register Criterion 1, and Los Angeles
Historic-Cultural Monument Criterion 1.) Criterion C,3,3 means Architecture
(National Register Criterion C, California Register Criterion 3, and Historic-
Cultural Monument Criterion 3.)

Under criterion A (Broad Patterns of History), the prewar buildings for generating,
receiving, and distributing electricity are a remarkably intact record of civil
engineering and urban development in Los Angeles. As a group, they illustrate
the evolution of the electrical system as it linked to the hydropower of the
aqueduct, delivered power for the first use of electricity, and spread service to the
expanding residential and industrial landscape of the city. Their location in each
decade portrays the centrifugal nature of Los Angeles’ development, pushing out
at the boundaries to the south, west, and north until a pause at World War II.
Their location parallels the chronological neighborhood-by-neighborhood
development of the city.

88
See Appendix D and E, Inventories for Distributing Stations, 1917-1945.

80
Under criterion C (Architecture) the buildings are excellent examples of industrial
and civic design in the popular style of their period. The consistency of their
decorative program and formal siting is unique for an industrial type. It relates
them to a brand for their utility company and to the civic identity of the emerging
city. The evolution in style from Neoclassical to PWA Moderne and Late Moderne
demonstrates Los Angeles’, and the utility company’s, incremental embrace of a
modern, forward-looking identity. As a group, they articulate an aspiration,
membership in the echelon of established American cities, realized in exceptional
architecture.

Many of the prewar buildings can be attributed to master architect, Frederick L.
Roehrig or to his design program. Known for his mastery of historic styles, the
two original generating buildings, at least two of the receiving buildings and over
a dozen of the distributing buildings are his design, while the unit-type massing
and construction approach of others adhere to his prototype. Roehrig’s reputation
was built on his important residential commissions prior to 1910 and the Bureau
buildings extended the timeline of his influential practice. They also associate
Roehrig with an important group of civic projects, adding his name to the list of
master architects designing the public image of Los Angeles as it became one of
the country’s leading cities. Further, the buildings illustrate the civic design
leadership and control of the Municipal Art Commission that significantly dictated
the imagery of public architecture in Los Angeles in collaboration with select
architects.

In order to be eligible for designation, a building must not only meet one or more
eligibility criteria, it must also retain integrity. The National Park Service defines
a property’s integrity using seven aspects or qualities: design, materials,
workmanship, location, feeling, association, and setting.
89

89
“Integrity,” National Park Service, National Register Publications, accessed October 21, 2018,
https://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/nrb34/nrb34_8.htm.

81
Almost all of the prewar buildings retain superior integrity with the exception of
compromised settings. In general, they appear, in 2018, as they did at their date
of construction. This has been illustrated throughout the thesis with paired
photographs.

The majority of the primary buildings retain integrity of Design. Their character-
defining features are largely intact. There are few significant interventions beyond
changes to identity signage, seismic reinforcement, and the installation of
security fencing after 2001.
90
Where additions have been made, they are in a
different style and attach to lesser elevations rather than blocking the main
features of the building.

Overall, the original Materials of the buildings remain intact. They have been
regularly maintained and appear to be stable. Some of the concrete buildings
appear to have been painted; however that finish is reversible and even while
present does not detract from the expression of texture and layering provided by
the base materials.

The buildings still exhibit the Workmanship and original methods of construction
and decoration with a level of detail and finish appropriate to civic structures.

The buildings continue to occupy their original Locations.

While many of the Settings have changed around these facilities, they continue
to covey their original Feeling. Their massiveness and formal design are a
palpable presence at each location. This is reinforced by their unique siting within
their respective parcels, which includes deliberate setbacks to accommodate
formal entry sequences and occasional landscaping.

90
Information in this paragraph is based on permits, site observation, and interviews with
Guillermo Honles, Architectural Associate, and Frank Hsu, Architect, both in the Power Systems
Architectural Group at the Department of Water and Power, interview conducted on May 7, 2018.

82
While the technology of distribution has changed, the buildings continue to be
Associated with the delivery of power throughout the city. They continue to
perform their original function at each site and within the system.

The Department of Water and Power has a utilitarian perspective on their
portfolio of buildings, maintaining them and keeping them in operation as long as
they continue to serve their required function.
91
Because of the incessant
expansion of the utility and constant changes in technology, capital investment
has typically funded new buildings and equipment rather than demolition and
replacement. The prewar buildings have continued to perform effectively, in part,
because the technology inside is inert and dry and the interiors have low-to-no
human occupancy. Their structural integrity has not been degraded by vibration,
moisture, abrasion, or overuse. In addition, the two structural types - steel-
reinforced concrete with stucco facing and steel framing with brick filler walls –
have survived earthquakes without significant damage. The utility does not have
a specific preservation approach or maintenance standard for the prewar
buildings.

To date, the prewar buildings have benefited from the reduced size of newer
technology. It has allowed them to increase their service capacity to address
rising levels of demand without changes to the existing form. The utility is under
pressure to add additional facilities, especially in urban areas. Although the
strategy is to identify and build on new sites, the cost of land and community
opposition may make reuse of existing parcels or additions to existing buildings a
desirable alternative and a potential threat.

91
Comments in this and the following paragraph are based on the interviews with Honles and
Hsu.

83

Only two of the buildings in the power system had been formally designated as
historic resources prior to the evaluation of SurveyLA.
92
These were the
Neoclassical 1916 Garvanza Distributing Station No. 2 (HCM 558) and the
mothballed 1035 W. 24
th
Street Distributing Station No. 31 (HCM 410). The latter
was a 1925 Industrial Vernacular facility acquired in the 1937 Los Angeles Gas
and Electric purchase.

Recommendations
For now, the prewar power buildings do not appear to be under immediate threat
of demolition or redevelopment.
93
They are stable active nodes in an essential
system; the cost and complication of taking them offline for replacement exceeds
benefit. However, as each building ages, future technological changes, pressures
to increase the productivity at each site, or changing real estate priorities pose
potential threats.

Information about the individual buildings and their role in the system needs to be
elevated and disseminated to raise awareness of their story. The most important
and challenging audience may be the Department of Water and Power itself and
would require a specific strategy with internal advocates. An external
communications campaign may eventually reach inside the organization. Such a
campaign should begin with the Water and Power Associates, a non-profit
organization whose mission includes preservation of the regional history of water
and electricity and its role in the development and growth of the city of Los
Angeles. Information should be shared with their membership newsletter and a
separate section on the architecture of the buildings should be added to their
influential website, www.waterandpower.org/museum.

92
Three of the utility’s office/customer service buildings are also designated HCMs: the Art Deco
customer service buildings at 5106 Lankershim Boulevard (HCM 232) and 2417 Daly Street
(HCM 384), both in the Art Deco style designed by S. Charles Lee, and the headquarters John
Ferraro Office Building. These lie outside the scope of this thesis.
93
Interview with Honles and Hsu.

84
Information should also be circulated to the general public. Ideal venues include
a feature in the Los Angeles Times and locally-specific articles in community
publications to raise awareness of their local facilities. Creation of a segment on
the electrical system for Lost L.A. and feeds into various historic blogs and
websites would also raise awareness.

Individual facilities should be nominated for local, state, and national designation.
They should also be submitted for inclusion on lists of notable buildings in the
infrastructure and power sector, such as that maintained by the American Society
of Civil Engineers at www.asce.org/landmarks.

Topics for Further Investigation

A number of topics for further study were identified while researching this thesis.
Multiple scholars have written about the political and social context for water and
power systems. The work of Steve Erie, Tom Sitton, Clark Davis, William Kahrl,
and Mark Reisner should be reviewed to situate the urban expression of the
power buildings in a larger cultural context.

The invention of the Los Angeles system did not occur in a vacuum. Other
companies in the city (Southern California Edison, Los Angeles Gas and Electric),
region, and nation were developing their own programs. Further research should
investigate the infrastructure organization, architectural image and form, early
technology, and bureaucratic structure of these contemporaneous efforts. This
would provide important comparative perspective on what influenced Los
Angeles, what other systems learned from Los Angeles, and the areas where the
Los Angeles system is unique. In addition, study and master planning documents
produced during Ezra Scattergood’s tenure should be reviewed to understand
the specific influences and precedents the Bureau selected for its own use.

85
Documentation in the Department of Water and Power archive emphasizes
design for technical requirements rather than aesthetics. Additional research
should investigate which internal departments were responsible for design of the
different building types, decorative programs, and landscaping. Further, it should
identify any design standards tied to exterior appearance and siting, and clarify
the role of staff versus consulting architects.

The Municipal Art Commission reviewed the design of all public buildings
including the distributing stations. Their annual reports and meeting minutes
should be a source of additional information concerning the aesthetic of the
buildings, public reaction to their design, and possible insight into the staff
involved with their design.

Finally, additional research should compile a list of the power buildings and
power systems that have already been designated in the United States. These
should be analyzed as part of the strategy for making nominations in the Los
Angeles system.

86

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99

Appendix A: Prewar Growth in Los Angeles
Area in Square Miles Annexations/Consolidations Population
1890 30.3 50,395
1895 Highland Park
1896 Southern and Western
1899 Garvanza
University

1900 44.35

102,479
1906 Shoestring Strip
1909 Wilmington
San Pedro
Colegrove-Cahuenga – Los Feliz

1910 86.25 Hollywood
East Hollywood-Ivanhoe-Tropico
319,198
1912 Arroyo Seco
1915 Bairdstown
Palms
San Fernando Valley

1916 Occidental
Westgate

1920 363.85 576,673
1922 Sawtelle
1923 Hyde Park
Eagle Rock

1925 Venice
1926 Barnes City
Watts

1930 441.74 1,238,048
1932 Tujunga
1940 450.83 1,504,277
1950 453.51 1,970,458

Source: Los Angeles Almanac, accessed June 12, 2018,
http://www.laalmanac.com/index.php.

100
Appendix B: Chronological Inventory
Generating, Switching, + Receiving Facilities
Source for All: Water and Power Facts, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

GENERATING PLANTS, 1908-1945
Hydroelectric
Power Plant
Thermal
Generating
Station

Cottonwood

1908 Harbor 1948
Division Creek

1909 Valley 1954
San Francisquito 1

1917 F. L. Roehrig Scattergood 1958
San Francisquito 2

1920 F. L. Roehrig Haynes 1962
Franklin

1921 Mohave 1971
San Fernando

1922 Navajo 1974
Big Pine

1925 Palo Verde 1986
Haiwee

1927
Hoover

1936

HIGH VOLTAGE SWITCHING STATIONS, 1916-1945
Olive

1917 Demolished after 1994. Architect unidentified.
Possibly F. L. Roehrig as part of 1917
Francisquito/St. John/Garvanza program.
Research needed.
Victorville

1936

RECEIVING STATIONS, 1917-1945
A St. John 1630 N. Main Street

1917 F. L. Roehrig
B Century 9615 S. Central Avenue

1926 F. L. Roehrig
C Wilmingto
n
900 E. Lomita Boulevard

1928 F. L. Roehrig
E Toluca 5740 Whitnall Highway

1937
F Velasco 1520 Velasco Street

1937
D Fairfax 5950 Venice Boulevard

1943

101
Appendix C: The Los Angeles Department Of Water And Power In 2017
94

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) continues to be the
largest municipal utility in the United States. It serves a population of nearly four
million residents and thousands of businesses within Los Angeles city limits, an
area of 465 square miles, as well as customers in the Owens Valley. Other
companies serve the approximately four- million inhabitants of surrounding
Southland cities. In fiscal year 2017 - 2018, the utility employed over 9,000
individuals and managed a power system budget of $4 billion and a water system
budget of $1.45 billion. A five-member board of Water and Power Commissioners,
appointed by the Mayor and approved by City Council, guides LADWP.

In 2017, LADWP has a generating capacity of 7,880 megawatts, which exceeds
the city’s typical peak demand of 6,502 megawatts. One-third of that power
comes from facilities in the Los Angeles basin with the rest acquired from as far
away as Washington, Arizona, Utah, and the Owens Valley. The geographical
breadth of the city’s power network far exceeds that of the water network. (Figure
Appendix.1)

94
The content in this section is based on Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Briefing
Book 2017-2018, report, August 2017, https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ladwp-jtti/wp-
content/uploads/sites/3/2017/09/08143247/Briefing-Book-Rolling-PDF.pdf.

102

Figure Appendix.1: Map of the Los Angeles Power Generation + Transmission System.
Source: Los Angeles Department of Water + Power Briefing Book 2017-2018.

Thirty-four percent of the power consumed by LADWP is produced by four
natural gas-fired generating stations located within city boundaries: Harbor in
Wilmington (1948), Valley in Sun Valley (1954), Scattergood in Playa del Rey
(1958, located adjacent to the Hyperion Water Treatment Plant, Los Angeles’
primary sewage treatment facility), and Haynes in Long Beach (1962).

Castaic Power Plant (1973), a pumped-storage hydroelectric facility, produces
twenty-two percent of LADWP’s energy. Water flows from an upper to a lower

103
reservoir during the day to generate power during peak demand. The same water
is pumped back to the upper reservoir at night when demand is at its lowest.

Coal-fired plants in Utah (Intermountain Power Plant near Delta, Utah, 1986) and,
until recently, in Arizona (Navajo Generating Station located on the Navajo
Nation near Page, Arizona, 1974) generate nineteen percent of the city’s power.
Intermountain Power Plant is being converted to run on natural gas and the
LADWP divested its twenty-one percent stake in Navajo Generating Station in
the 2016-2017 fiscal year. LADWP plans to eliminate all coal-fired power by 2025,
substituting natural gas, solar, and wind power in its place. Paolo Verde
Generating Station (Palo Verde, Arizona, 1988), the largest nuclear power plant
in the country, provides nine percent of LADWP’s energy.

Five percent of LADWP’s energy derives from hydropower, primarily from Hoover
Dam (1936), with the rest coming from small hydroelectric plants along the
Aqueduct and its feeder streams (1908-1971), and from Washington state’s
Columbia River Dams as part of the Pacific DC Intertie (1970). The remaining
eleven percent is supplied by wind power (Pine Tree Wind Farm, Tehachapi),
desert photovoltaic solar farms, experimental rooftop solar installations, and from
geothermal sources near the Salton Sea. LADWP plans to provide thirty-three
percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

In 2017, LADWP owned over 4,500 miles of overhead transmission circuits
spanning five Western states and over 125 miles of underground circuits. 15,452
transmission towers supported the overhead circuits. Twenty-four receiving
stations were located throughout the Los Angeles basin.

The LADWP system includes two converter stations that convert direct current
(DC) from long-distance high voltage lines to alternating current (AC)
synchronized with the Los Angeles power grid. Adelanto (1986) converts power
from the Utah Intermountain Power Plant while Sylmar (1971) converts power

104
from the Washington Pacific DC Intertie. In addition, the system has ten
switching stations.

LADWP’s 2017 local distribution network includes 160 distributing stations; over
10,000 miles of overhead and underground distribution lines; and nearly 310,000
distribution utility poles. In addition to serving private, commercial, and industrial
customers, the distributing system feeds power to almost 32,000 city-owned
utilitarian streetlights.

105
Appendix D: Inventory By DWP Station Number - Distributing Stations, 1917-1945
95

DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
1 St. John
1630 N. Main
Street
1917 1923 Electrical distributing station 321 x 86 x 49/3
stories; machine shop + electrical station; reinforced
concrete + hollow tile walls. $13,000.

DPS F. L. Roehrig (A)

Neoclassical SLA
3S;
3CS;
5S3

HRI
2S2
Per HPLA/Sanborn Maps:
Complex includes
Transformer house No. 1
(1913/1918), Electrical
Maintenance (ND), General
Warehouse (1923/1940),
General Repair Shop (1925),
Test Laboratory (1916),
Outdoor Transformers (ND),
etc.

2 Garvanza
225 N. Avenue
61
1916 1916: Electrical distributing station 34 x 45 x 20/1
story with 2 rooms. $8,500.

1926: 62 x 49 x 1 story addition; concrete + steel.
$33,000.

1953: Station listed as 49 x 96 x 20/1story.

1967: Demolish 3 houses, add new equipment pad,
add perimeter wall 90 x 111 x 20.

DPS,
BPL

DWP
F. L. Roehrig (A) Neoclassical HCM
558

3 San Pedro
708 Regan
Street
1923 No original permit.

1982: Replace front entry doors. $10,000.

DWP F. L. Roehrig (A) Neoclassical Municipal Arts Commission
announces San Pedro with
Roehrig as architect, "Power
Plant Equipment," Journal of
Electricity and Western
Industry 49 (October 1,
1922): 265.

95
"California Office of Historic Preservation, Historic Resources Inventory, report (2011); DWP Location Fusion Tables Short,"Fusion Tables, October 23, 2014,
https://fusiontables.google.com/DataSource?docid=1ANTh_ZrAvFoVBqvKxXQkBsaXr7hcjG-8vkVZtwUA#rows:id=1; Office of Historic Resources, Department of
City Planning, City of Los Angeles, "SurveyLA Findings by Community Plan Area," SurveyLA Findings and Reports, accessed August 2017,
https://preservation.lacity.org/surveyla-findings-and-reports; "Online Building Records," Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, accessed August 2017,
http://ladbsdoc.lacity.org/idispublic/; and Public Affairs Division, Department of Water and Power, Water and Power Facts (Los Angeles: Los Angeles Department
of Water and Power, 1991), 77-78.

106
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
4 Slauson
5736 S.
Figueroa Street

1917 1920: Electrical distributing station 57 X 95 X 21/1
story with 2 rooms; reinforced concrete. $25,000.

1928: Existing substation demolished; 75 x 103 x
42/2 stories new substation with 23 rooms; reinforced
concrete + steel with brick filler walls. $106,000.

DPS,
BPL

DPS,
BPL

SLA Roehrig (A)

DPS, BPL (A)

Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3

3S;
3CS;
5S3

5 Mateo
1504 Mateo
Street
1918 1924: Footings

1925: Electrical distributing station 74 x 122 x 37;
reinforced concrete.

1956: Addition to rear.

1994: Add concrete shear wall to rear.

F. L. Roehrig
DPS, BPL

DWP

Neoclassical HRI
1994
2S2
criterion
A
Note on permit for Station 13
(Normandie) states Mateo +
Normandie are identical
design; notes on
photographs for Station 13
(Normandie) – dated
5.13.1928 - in the Historical
Photo Collection of the
Department of Water and
Power, City of Los Angeles
state that Stations 5, 11, 13,
15, and 19 are constructed
from the same set of plans.

6 Vine
1007 Vine
Street
1924 1923: Electrical distributing station 73 x 81 x 37;
reinforced concrete + steel. $76,000.

1924: Pump house + cooling tower.

1959: Brace parapet.

DPS,
BPL

DWP

Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3

3S;
3CS;
5S3

8 Longwood
4858 San
Vicente
Boulevard

1925 1938: Electrical distributing station 122 x 51 x 40/2
stories + garage. $130,000.
DWP V. Lankovsky (E) PWA
Moderne
SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3

Mayan revival decorative
elements

107
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
9 Francisco
926 Francisco
Street
1923 1922: Electrical distributing station 64 x 118 x 39/2
stories; reinforced concrete exterior, Hy-Rib +
concrete interior. $80,000.

1954: Fire escapes at rear 2
nd
floor of building +
ladder to roof.

DPS F. L. Roehrig (A) Neoclassical

SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3

HRI
historic
survey
3S

Roehrig identified in
Southwest Builder and
Contractor, September 19,
1924, 46.

10 Highland
6776 Hawthorn
Avenue
1933 1932: Alteration to Electrical distributing station under
construction 48 x 91 x 48/2 stories.

1951: 21 x 21 x 2 story addition to 50 x 95 existing
electrical distributing station.

1954: Brace portion front parapet wall to take
earthquake stresses.

BPS,
BPL

DWP

DWP

W. A. Hunsucker
(E)
PWA
Moderne
No original permit found.
11 Corto
1141 W.
Second Street
1927 1926: Permit for 117 S. Corto Street: Distribution
station 120 x 74 x 51/2stories; reinforced concrete +
steel form plaster partitions. $112,000.

BPL F. L. Roehrig (A)

Neoclassical 1960 permit for interior
change notes 4 other
buildings on site in use as
garage, office, warehouse +
truck shed; notes on
photographs for Station 13
(Normandie) – dated
5.13.1928 - in the Historical
Photo Collection of the
Department of Water and
Power, City of Los Angeles
state that Stations 5, 11, 13,
15, and 19 are constructed
from the same set of plans.

12 Fourth Street
120 E. Fourth
Street
1922 1903: Office building + electrical substation for
Southern California Edison. Building to be two stories
with foundation that can hold seven stories for further
expansion. $94,000

Edison John
Parkinson (A)
Romanesqu
e Revival
SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3

Los Angeles Times, June
12, 1903: “Edison Company
Builds”

108
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
13 Normandie
3520 S.
Normandie
Avenue
1928 1925: Electrical distributing station 74 x 122 x 37/2
stories; reinforced concrete + metal lath on steel
studs. $100,000.

1927: Electrical distributing station 74 x 83 x 37/2
stories; earlier project delayed; new permit
supersedes previous; will be built to drawings
submitted earlier. $100,000.

1963: Brace parapet.

1992: Structural strengthening.

DWP,
BPL
F. L. Roehrig (A)

Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3
Permit granted 7/25/1925 for
identical building @1504
Mateo Street; notes on
photographs for Station 13
(Normandie) – dated
5.13.1928 - in the Historical
Photo Collection of the
Department of Water and
Power, City of Los Angeles
state that Stations 5, 11, 13,
15, and 19 are constructed
from the same set of plans.
14 Menlo
9109 Menlo
Avenue
1925 1925: Note on 1950 permit states Electrical
Distribution Station use at site since 1925. $18,000.

1940: 75 x 40 extension of one-story, steel-frame,
stucco building to existing 100 x 49 x 21/1 story
Distributing Station.

1950: 14 x 49 bay addition on west end of existing 90
x 100 x 21/1 story building for circuit breakers;
alteration of existing west bay for new transformers.
$5,000.

1990: Structural strengthening.

DWP

V. Lankovsky (E)

M. W. Strauss
(E)
Industrial
Vernacular

No digitized original permit.
The 1950 permit states
electrical distributing station
use at this site since 1925.
Historic photo (n.d.) from the
LADWP archive shows that
an earlier Mission-style
station was on the site
sometime before 1940.
15 Commonwealth
604 N.
Commonwealth
Avenue
1926 1925: Electrical distributing station 74 x 122 x 37/2
stories; reinforced concrete + metal lath on steel.
$100,000.

1993: Structural strengthening. New 23’ rear concrete
shear wall at east elevation to replace channel +
plaster wall. Located in middle bay of wall. $65,000.

DWP,
BPL
F. L. Roehrig (A)

T. G. Lepe (E)

Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3
Permit granted 7/25/1925 for
identical building @ 1504
Mateo Street; notes on
photographs for Station 13
(Normandie) – dated
5.13.1928 - in the Historical
Photo Collection of the
Department of Water and
Power, City of Los Angeles
state that Stations 5, 11, 13,
15, and 19 are constructed
from the same set of plans.

109
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
17 Irolo
2904 W.
Eleventh Street
1931 1930: Electrical distributing station 75 x 103 x 42/2
stories + basement; 23 rooms; structural steel frame
+ brick filler walls exterior; steel
columns/beams/studs + plaster partitions. Existing
distributing to be demolished. $123,000.

DWP,
BPL
DWP, BPL (A) Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3
Permit 4070 on Feb 11,
1928 covered building
erected from the same plans
that will be used for this
building.
18 Hyde Park
3316 W. 60
th

Street
1925 No digital original permit found. DWP archive notes
on the station list construction start 1925.

1938: Addition to existing 72 x 48 electrical
distributing station; add 27 x 48 to south end, 14 x 48
to north end, + duplicate the existing design for
details. $10,000.

1989: Structural strengthening.

DWP

Industrial
Vernacular

19 Trinity
3006 Trinity
Street
1926 1925: Electrical distributing station 74 x 122 x 37/2
stories.
$120,000.

1993: Add shear walls to rear of existing building.
$60,000.
DWP,
BPL
F. L. Roehrig (A) Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3
Permit granted 25740
7/25/1925 for identical
building @ 1504 Mateo
Street; notes on
photographs for Station 13
(Normandie) – dated
5.13.1928 - in the Historical
Photo Collection of the
Department of Water and
Power, City of Los Angeles
state that Stations 5, 11, 13,
15, and 19 are constructed
from the same set of plans.

20 Palms
3030 Canfield
Avenue
1935 1933: Electrical distributing station 52 x 132 x 26/1
story; brick with steel columns exterior + steel/metal
lath/plaster partitions interior. $70,000.

1950: 14 x 25 addition to south side; reinforced
concrete with Roman brick veneer. $6,500.

1989: Seismic compliance. $80,000.

DWP,
BPL

DWP

DWP

L. E. Dubal (A)
W. A. Hunsucker
(E)

M. D. Green (E)

PWA
Moderne
SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3

110
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
23 Indiana
123 S. Indiana
Street
1958 1940: Electrical distributing station 124 x 53 x
24/1story; reinforced concrete with brick exterior.
$75,000.

DWP V. Lankovsky (E) Late
Moderne
SLA
C/3/3
A/1/1
3S;
3CS;
5S3

26 Belmont
1638 Palo Alto
Street
1937 1927: Silent sub station 56 x 105 x 52/2 stories; 4
rooms; brick + concrete exterior, concrete + hollow
tile interior. $50,000.

1938: Electrical Distributing Station: remove existing
terra cotta inscription on north + west walls, install
new “Municipal Power + Light” in terra cotta +
“Station No. 26” in metal letters over windows. $500.

1972: Repair earthquake damage to walls, parapets
+ stairs; install interior bracing at end walls. $43,000.

LAGE

BPL

DWP

V. Lankovsky (E)

M. F. Perez (E)

Neoclassical
; Industrial
Vernacular
HRI
FEMA
1997
7N A

SLA
A/1/1
3S;
3CS;
5S3

Part of the 1937 transfer of
properties from LAGE to
DWP.
27 Clovis
9916 Clovis
Avenue
1939 1939: Electrical substation 65 x 50 x 22/2 story; steel
frame + reinforced brick exterior. $20,000.

DWP Austin M. Hill (E) Late
Moderne

29 Palisades
15345 Sunset
Boulevard
1936 1935: Electrical distributing station 40 x 80 x 26/1
story; reinforced concrete with stucco finish. $52,250
.

1959: Concrete tilt-up transformer wall enclosure 61 x
80 x 22-26/1 story. $18,700.

BPL

DWP
F. L. Roehrig (A)
H. C. Gardett (E)

R. L. White (E)
PWA
Moderne
SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3
Addition to rear + side
elevations.
30 Eagle Rock
4905 N.
Maywood
Avenue
1937 1935: Electrical substation 52 x 118 x 24/1 story;
reinforced concrete with stucco finish. $8,300.

1964: Transformer enclosure 18 x 40 x 24/1 story.

BPL F. L. Roehrig (A)

PWA
Moderne
Notes for photographs of
Palisades Station #29 in the
Historical Photo Collection of
the Department of Water
and Power, City of Los
Angeles state that Eagle
Rock will be a larger version
of Palisades.

31
1035 W. 24
th

Street
1925 LAGE Industrial
Vernacular
HCM
410

111
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
32 Woodlawn
4332
Woodlawn
Avenue
1937 1910: Electrical sub station 25 x 35 x 23/1 story; brick
walls + red pressed brick

1928: Silent sub station + dwelling 52 x 104 x 47/2
stories with 5 rooms; concrete + brick exterior.
$40,000.

1938: Remove cast stone block over door, install
“Station No. 32” in cast stone over door, install
“Municipal Power + Light” in metal letters on brick
facing over front window.

1962: Brace parapets around perimeter of building,
remove terra cotta.

1992: Strengthen with added reinforced concrete
shear walls.

LAGE

LAGE

DWP

Renaissance
Revival;
PWA
Moderne
SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3

34 Santee
1027 Santee
Street
1937 1925: Electric sub station 50 x 150 x 65/3 story; brick
+ concrete.

1938: Remove existing LAGE cast stone inscription
over door, install new “Municipal Power + Light” +
“Station No. 34” over door. $250.

1952: Brace brick parapets at the roof + anchor art
stone coping on east end against seismic stresses on
existing substation. $2,500.

2009: Seismic upgrade.

LAGE

BPL

DWP

V. Lankovsky (E)

W. A Hunsucker
(E)

Neoclassical
; Industrial
Vernacular
SLA
A/1/1
3S;
3CS;
5S3
Last manned distributing
station; automated 1975.

35 North
Hollywood
4735
Cahuenga
Boulevard
1925 1941: Electrical distributing station 165 x 54 x 30/1
story on site of temporary substation + garage; steel
frame + reinforced concrete. $100,000.
DWP V. Lankovsky (E) PWA
Moderne
SLA
C/3/3
A/1/1
3S;
3CS;
5S3

Also listed at 10628 W.
Camarillor Street/10627 Blix
Street with construction date
of 1935. Further research
needed to verify 1935 v.
1941 dates.
37 Factory
1218 Factory
Place
1937 1923: Electrical sub station 100 x 135 x 63/ 3 stories;
concrete + brick. $86,000.

1940: Alterations to existing electrical substation 135
x 100 x 66/3 stories; brick exterior.

LAGE

DWP

A. M. Hill (E)
Industrial
Vernacular
This station is being
replaced due to seismic
damage. The new
Distributing Station 144 is
located one block away on
Palmetto Street.

112
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
38 Hobart
987 S. Hobart
1937 1929: Silent substation 50 x 102 x 50/2 stories;
concrete + brick exterior, concrete + tile interior.
$50,000.

1938: Remove existing LAGE cast-stone inscription,
install new “Municipal Power + Light” + “Station No.
38” cast stone inscription.

1959: Brace existing parapet.

LAGE

BPL

V. Lankovsky (E)
Neoclassical
39 Exposition
3125
Exposition
Boulevard
1937 1923: Transformer house 30 x 40 x 24/2 stories; brick
exterior.

1929: Sanborn map shows LAGE on site with
transformer house at rear of lot near 36
th
Street.

1937: Block in LAGE inscribed letters, install
“Municipal Power + Light” + “Station No. 29” in metal
letters on face of building.

LAGE

BPL

V. Lankovsky (E)
PWA
Moderne;
Industrial
Vernacular
Permits don’t seem to exist
for current building; Sanborn
map comparisons don’t help.

After 1938, surrounding site
becomes Southern
California Gas yard.
40 Formosa
1036 N.
Formosa
5801 West
Third Street
1937 1951: Electrical distributing station 136 x 70 x 23/1
story; reinforced concrete and concrete block.
$75,000.
DWP Arthur L.
Minasian (A)
W. A. Hunsucker
(E)
Mid-century
Modern

41 Figueroa
7801 S.
Figueroa Street
1937 1930: Silent sub station 50 x 109 x 52/2 stories; 9
rooms; concrete + terra cotta.

1938: Install “Municipal Power + Light” + “Station No.
41” in metal letters over door.
LAGE

BPL

V. Lankovsky (E)
Art Deco SLA
A/1/1/
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3
Survey LA lists property at
514 W. 78
th
Street with a
date of 1932. Property was
formerly an LAGE
substation.
43 Pico
5769 W. Pico
Boulevard
1937 1927: Silent sub station 50 x 100 4 rooms; reinforced
concrete + brick. $45,000.

1938: Remove existing terra cotta inscription, install
“Municipal Power + Light” inscription in terra cotta,
install “Station No. 43” in metal letters over door.

1988: New concrete shear walls + other seismic
strengthening.

LAGE

BPL

V. Lankovsky (D)
Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1

3S;
3CS;
5S3

113
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
44 Venice
911 S. Lincoln
Boulevard
1928 1928: Electrical distributing station 53 x 132 x 28/1
story; reinforced concrete/brick exterior, Hy-Rib +
plaster interior. $48,000.

1967: Addition of 16 x 41 x 21/1 story brick wall
enclosure adjacent to power station.

1988: Seismic strengthening of existing yard walls
with gunite.

DWP,
BPL
F. L. Roehrig (A) Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
3S;
3CS;
5S3

45 Western
5516 S.
Western
1937 1924 or before: Permit for other LAGE work at this
address notes existing electrical station. SurveyLA
records 1926.

1938: Remove existing terra cotta inscription, install
new “Municipal Power + Light” + Station No. 45” in
terra cotta.

1963: Install concrete bond beam to brace existing
parapet walls.

1990: Strengthen building with shotcrete walls.

LAGE

BPL

DWP

DWP
Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3

47 Imperial
5455 W.
Imperial
Highway
1940 1940: Distributing station control house 26 x 19 x
15/1story; metal + cement plaster construction.
$1,900.

1966: Metal + concrete block 134 x 145 x 18 high
wall to screen station yard from public view. $25,000.

DWP

DWP
V. Lankovsky (E)

J. A. Hoffman (E)
Mid-century
Modern

111 Vicksburg
9750 Vicksburg
Avenue or
9711
1942 No original permit.

1953: Toilet building.

1956: 12 x 20 shelter for crew.

112 Del Rey
7820 Talbert
Street
1935

1954
No original permit.

1954: Toilet building 7 x 7 x 8 high. $500.

W. A. Hunsucker
(E)
Late Modern
114 Crystal Springs
Griffith Park
1931 No permits. Vernacular
Industrial

114
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
119 Ford
220 N. Henry
Ford Avenue
1937 No original permits.

Restroom 7 x 7 x 10.

Toilet in 30 x 30 x 16 Control House. $49,000.

123 Harbor City
25923
Frampton
Avenue
1940 No original permits for this or nearby addresses; no
permits for AIN
Address doesn’t show.

115

Appendix E: Inventory By DWP Date In Service - Distributing Stations, 1917-1945
96

DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
2 Garvanza
225 N. Avenue
61
1916 1916: Electrical distributing station 34 x 45 x 20/1
story with 2 rooms. $8,500.

1926: 62 x 49 x 1 story addition; concrete + steel.
$33,000.

1953: Station listed as 49 x 96 x 20/1story.

1967: Demolish 3 houses, add new equipment pad,
add perimeter wall 90 x 111 x 20.

DPS,
BPL

DWP
F. L. Roehrig (A) Neoclassical HCM
558

1 St. John
1630 N. Main
Street
1917 1923 Electrical distributing station 321 x 86 x 49/3
stories; machine shop + electrical station; reinforced
concrete + hollow tile walls. $13,000.

DPS F. L. Roehrig (A)

Neoclassical SLA
3S;
3CS;
5S3

HRI
2S2
Per HPLA/Sanborn Maps:
Complex includes
Transformer house No. 1
(1913/1918), Electrical
Maintenance (ND), General
Warehouse (1923/1940),
General Repair Shop (1925),
Test Laboratory (1916),
Outdoor Transformers (ND),
etc.

4 Slauson
5736 S.
Figueroa Street

1917 1920: Electrical distributing station 57 X 95 X 21/1
story with 2 rooms; reinforced concrete. $25,000.

1928: Existing substation demolished; 75 x 103 x
42/2 stories new substation with 23 rooms; reinforced
concrete + steel with brick filler walls. $106,000.

DPS,
BPL

DPS,
BPL

SLA Roehrig (A)

DPS, BPL (A)

Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3

3S;
3CS;
5S3

96
"California Office of Historic Preservation, Historic Resources Inventory, report (2011); DWP Location Fusion Tables Short," Fusion Tables, October 23, 2014,
https://fusiontables.google.com/DataSource?docid=1ANTh_ZrAvFoVBqvKxXQkBsaXr7hcjG-8vkVZtwUA#rows:id=1; Office of Historic Resources, Department of
City Planning, City of Los Angeles, "SurveyLA Findings by Community Plan Area," SurveyLA Findings and Reports, accessed August 2017,
https://preservation.lacity.org/surveyla-findings-and-reports; "Online Building Records," Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, accessed August 2017,
http://ladbsdoc.lacity.org/idispublic/; and Public Affairs Division, Department of Water and Power, Water and Power Facts (Los Angeles: Los Angeles Department
of Water and Power, 1991), 77-78.

116
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
5 Mateo
1504 Mateo
Street
1918 1924: Footings

1925: Electrical distributing station 74 x 122 x 37;
reinforced concrete.

1956: Addition to rear.

1994: Add concrete shear wall to rear.

F. L. Roehrig
DPS, BPL

DWP

Neoclassical HRI
1994
2S2
criterion
A
Note on permit for Station 13
(Normandie) states Mateo +
Normandie are identical
design; notes on
photographs for Station 13
(Normandie) – dated
5.13.1928 - in the Historical
Photo Collection of the
Department of Water and
Power, City of Los Angeles
state that Stations 5, 11, 13,
15, and 19 are constructed
from the same set of plans.

12 Fourth Street
120 E. Fourth
Street
1922 1903: Office building + electrical substation for
Southern California Edison. Building to be two stories
with foundation that can hold seven stories for further
expansion. $94,000

Edison John
Parkinson (A)
Romanesqu
e Revival
SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3

Los Angeles Times, June
12, 1903: “Edison Company
Builds”
3 San Pedro
708 Regan
Street
1923 No original permit.

1982: Replace front entry doors. $10,000.

DWP F. L. Roehrig (A) Neoclassical Municipal Arts Commission
announces San Pedro with
Roehrig as architect, "Power
Plant Equipment," Journal of
Electricity and Western
Industry 49 (October 1,
1922): 265.

9 Francisco
926 Francisco
Street
1923 1922: Electrical distributing station 64 x 118 x 39/2
stories; reinforced concrete exterior, Hy-Rib +
concrete interior. $80,000.

1954: Fire escapes at rear 2
nd
floor of building +
ladder to roof.

DPS F. L. Roehrig (A) Neoclassical

SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3

HRI
historic
survey
3S

Roehrig identified in
Southwest Builder and
Contractor, September 19,
1924, 46.

117
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
6 Vine
1007 Vine
Street
1924 1923: Electrical distributing station 73 x 81 x 37;
reinforced concrete + steel. $76,000.

1924: Pump house + cooling tower.

1959: Brace parapet.

DPS,
BPL

DWP

Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3

3S;
3CS;
5S3

8 Longwood
4858 San
Vicente
Boulevard

1925 1938: Electrical distributing station 122 x 51 x 40/2
stories + garage. $130,000.
DWP V. Lankovsky (E) PWA
Moderne
SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3

Mayan revival decorative
elements
14 Menlo
9109 Menlo
Avenue
1925 1925: Note on 1950 permit states Electrical
Distribution Station use at site since 1925. $18,000.

1940: 75 x 40 extension of one-story, steel-frame,
stucco building to existing 100 x 49 x 21/1 story
Distributing Station.

1950: 14 x 49 bay addition on west end of existing 90
x 100 x 21/1 story building for circuit breakers;
alteration of existing west bay for new transformers.
$5,000.

1990: Structural strengthening.

DWP

V. Lankovsky (E)

M. W. Strauss
(E)
Industrial
Vernacular

No digitized original permit.
The 1950 permit states
electrical distributing station
use at this site since 1925.
Historic photo (n.d.) from the
LADWP archive shows that
an earlier Mission-style
station was on the site
sometime before 1940.
18 Hyde Park
3316 W. 60
th

Street
1925 No digital original permit found. DWP archive notes
on the station list construction start 1925.

1938: Addition to existing 72 x 48 electrical
distributing station; add 27 x 48 to south end, 14 x 48
to north end, + duplicate the existing design for
details. $10,000.

1989: Structural strengthening.

DWP

Industrial
Vernacular

31
1035 W. 24
th

Street
1925 LAGE Industrial
Vernacular
HCM
410

118
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
35 North
Hollywood
4735
Cahuenga
Boulevard
1925 1941: Electrical distributing station 165 x 54 x 30/1
story on site of temporary substation + garage; steel
frame + reinforced concrete. $100,000.
DWP V. Lankovsky (E) PWA
Moderne
SLA
C/3/3
A/1/1
3S;
3CS;
5S3

Also listed at 10628 W.
Camarillor Street/10627 Blix
Street with construction date
of 1935. Further research
needed to verify 1935 v.
1941 dates.
15 Commonwealth
604 N.
Commonwealth
Avenue
1926 1925: Electrical distributing station 74 x 122 x 37/2
stories; reinforced concrete + metal lath on steel.
$100,000.

1993: Structural strengthening. New 23’ rear concrete
shear wall at east elevation to replace channel +
plaster wall. Located in middle bay of wall. $65,000.

DWP,
BPL
F. L. Roehrig (A)

T. G. Lepe (E)

Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3
Permit granted 7/25/1925 for
identical building @ 1504
Mateo Street; notes on
photographs for Station 13
(Normandie) – dated
5.13.1928 - in the Historical
Photo Collection of the
Department of Water and
Power, City of Los Angeles
state that Stations 5, 11, 13,
15, and 19 are constructed
from the same set of plans.

19 Trinity
3006 Trinity
Street
1926 1925: Electrical distributing station 74 x 122 x 37/2
stories.
$120,000.

1993: Add shear walls to rear of existing building.
$60,000.
DWP,
BPL
F. L. Roehrig (A) Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3
Permit granted 25740
7/25/1925 for identical
building @ 1504 Mateo
Street; notes on
photographs for Station 13
(Normandie) – dated
5.13.1928 - in the Historical
Photo Collection of the
Department of Water and
Power, City of Los Angeles
state that Stations 5, 11, 13,
15, and 19 are constructed
from the same set of plans.

119
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
11 Corto
1141 W.
Second Street
1927 1926: Permit for 117 S. Corto Street: Distribution
station 120 x 74 x 51/2stories; reinforced concrete +
steel form plaster partitions. $112,000.

BPL F. L. Roehrig (A)

Neoclassical 1960 permit for interior
change notes 4 other
buildings on site in use as
garage, office, warehouse +
truck shed; notes on
photographs for Station 13
(Normandie) – dated
5.13.1928 - in the Historical
Photo Collection of the
Department of Water and
Power, City of Los Angeles
state that Stations 5, 11, 13,
15, and 19 are constructed
from the same set of plans.

13 Normandie
3520 S.
Normandie
Avenue
1928 1925: Electrical distributing station 74 x 122 x 37/2
stories; reinforced concrete + metal lath on steel
studs. $100,000.

1927: Electrical distributing station 74 x 83 x 37/2
stories; earlier project delayed; new permit
supersedes previous; will be built to drawings
submitted earlier. $100,000.

1963: Brace parapet.

1992: Structural strengthening.

DWP,
BPL
F. L. Roehrig (A)

Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3
Permit granted 7/25/1925 for
identical building @1504
Mateo Street; notes on
photographs for Station 13
(Normandie) – dated
5.13.1928 - in the Historical
Photo Collection of the
Department of Water and
Power, City of Los Angeles
state that Stations 5, 11, 13,
15, and 19 are constructed
from the same set of plans.
44 Venice
911 S. Lincoln
Boulevard
1928 1928: Electrical distributing station 53 x 132 x 28/1
story; reinforced concrete/brick exterior, Hy-Rib +
plaster interior. $48,000.

1967: Addition of 16 x 41 x 21/1 story brick wall
enclosure adjacent to power station.

1988: Seismic strengthening of existing yard walls
with gunite.

DWP,
BPL
F. L. Roehrig (A) Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
3S;
3CS;
5S3

17 Irolo
2904 W.
Eleventh Street
1931 1930: Electrical distributing station 75 x 103 x 42/2
stories + basement; 23 rooms; structural steel frame
+ brick filler walls exterior; steel
columns/beams/studs + plaster partitions. Existing
distributing to be demolished. $123,000.

DWP,
BPL
DWP, BPL (A) Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3
Permit 4070 on Feb 11,
1928 covered building
erected from the same plans
that will be used for this
building.

120
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
114 Crystal Springs
Griffith Park
1931 No permits. Vernacular
Industrial

10 Highland
6776 Hawthorn
Avenue
1933 1932: Alteration to Electrical distributing station under
construction 48 x 91 x 48/2 stories.

1951: 21 x 21 x 2 story addition to 50 x 95 existing
electrical distributing station.

1954: Brace portion front parapet wall to take
earthquake stresses.

BPS,
BPL

DWP

DWP

W. A. Hunsucker
(E)
PWA
Moderne
No original permit found.
20 Palms
3030 Canfield
Avenue
1935 1933: Electrical distributing station 52 x 132 x 26/1
story; brick with steel columns exterior + steel/metal
lath/plaster partitions interior. $70,000.

1950: 14 x 25 addition to south side; reinforced
concrete with Roman brick veneer. $6,500.

1989: Seismic compliance. $80,000.

DWP,
BPL

DWP

DWP

L. E. Dubal (A)
W. A. Hunsucker
(E)

M. D. Green (E)

PWA
Moderne
SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3

112 Del Rey
7820 Talbert
Street
1935

1954
No original permit.

1954: Toilet building 7 x 7 x 8 high. $500.

W. A. Hunsucker
(E)
Late Modern
29 Palisades
15345 Sunset
Boulevard
1936 1935: Electrical distributing station 40 x 80 x 26/1
story; reinforced concrete with stucco finish. $52,250
.

1959: Concrete tilt-up transformer wall enclosure 61 x
80 x 22-26/1 story. $18,700.

BPL

DWP
F. L. Roehrig (A)
H. C. Gardett (E)

R. L. White (E)
PWA
Moderne
SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3
Addition to rear + side
elevations.

121
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
26 Belmont
1638 Palo Alto
Street
1937 1927: Silent sub station 56 x 105 x 52/2 stories; 4
rooms; brick + concrete exterior, concrete + hollow
tile interior. $50,000.

1938: Electrical Distributing Station: remove existing
terra cotta inscription on north + west walls, install
new “Municipal Power + Light” in terra cotta +
“Station No. 26” in metal letters over windows. $500.

1972: Repair earthquake damage to walls, parapets
+ stairs; install interior bracing at end walls. $43,000.

LAGE

BPL

DWP

V. Lankovsky (E)

M. F. Perez (E)

Neoclassical
; Industrial
Vernacular
HRI
FEMA
1997
7N A

SLA
A/1/1
3S;
3CS;
5S3

Part of the 1937 transfer of
properties from LAGE to
DWP.
30 Eagle Rock
4905 N.
Maywood
Avenue
1937 1935: Electrical substation 52 x 118 x 24/1 story;
reinforced concrete with stucco finish. $8,300.

1964: Transformer enclosure 18 x 40 x 24/1 story.

BPL F. L. Roehrig (A)

PWA
Moderne
Notes for photographs of
Palisades Station #29 in the
Historical Photo Collection of
the Department of Water
and Power, City of Los
Angeles state that Eagle
Rock will be a larger version
of Palisades.

32 Woodlawn
4332
Woodlawn
Avenue
1937 1910: Electrical sub station 25 x 35 x 23/1 story; brick
walls + red pressed brick

1928: Silent sub station + dwelling 52 x 104 x 47/2
stories with 5 rooms; concrete + brick exterior.
$40,000.

1938: Remove cast stone block over door, install
“Station No. 32” in cast stone over door, install
“Municipal Power + Light” in metal letters on brick
facing over front window.

1962: Brace parapets around perimeter of building,
remove terra cotta.

1992: Strengthen with added reinforced concrete
shear walls.

LAGE

LAGE

DWP

Renaissance
Revival;
PWA
Moderne
SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3

122
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
34 Santee
1027 Santee
Street
1937 1925: Electric sub station 50 x 150 x 65/3 story; brick
+ concrete.

1938: Remove existing LAGE cast stone inscription
over door, install new “Municipal Power + Light” +
“Station No. 34” over door. $250.

1952: Brace brick parapets at the roof + anchor art
stone coping on east end against seismic stresses on
existing substation. $2,500.

2009: Seismic upgrade.

LAGE

BPL

DWP

V. Lankovsky (E)

W. A Hunsucker
(E)

Neoclassical
; Industrial
Vernacular
SLA
A/1/1
3S;
3CS;
5S3
Last manned distributing
station; automated 1975.

37 Factory
1218 Factory
Place
1937 1923: Electrical sub station 100 x 135 x 63/ 3 stories;
concrete + brick. $86,000.

1940: Alterations to existing electrical substation 135
x 100 x 66/3 stories; brick exterior.

LAGE

DWP

A. M. Hill (E)
Industrial
Vernacular
This station is being
replaced due to seismic
damage. The new
Distributing Station 144 is
located one block away on
Palmetto Street.

38 Hobart
987 S. Hobart
1937 1929: Silent substation 50 x 102 x 50/2 stories;
concrete + brick exterior, concrete + tile interior.
$50,000.

1938: Remove existing LAGE cast-stone inscription,
install new “Municipal Power + Light” + “Station No.
38” cast stone inscription.

1959: Brace existing parapet.

LAGE

BPL

V. Lankovsky (E)
Neoclassical
39 Exposition
3125
Exposition
Boulevard
1937 1923: Transformer house 30 x 40 x 24/2 stories; brick
exterior.

1929: Sanborn map shows LAGE on site with
transformer house at rear of lot near 36
th
Street.

1937: Block in LAGE inscribed letters, install
“Municipal Power + Light” + “Station No. 29” in metal
letters on face of building.

LAGE

BPL

V. Lankovsky (E)
PWA
Moderne;
Industrial
Vernacular
Permits don’t seem to exist
for current building; Sanborn
map comparisons don’t help.

After 1938, surrounding site
becomes Southern
California Gas yard.

123
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
40 Formosa
1036 N.
Formosa
5801 West
Third Street
1937 1951: Electrical distributing station 136 x 70 x 23/1
story; reinforced concrete and concrete block.
$75,000.
DWP Arthur L.
Minasian (A)
W. A. Hunsucker
(E)
Mid-century
Modern

41 Figueroa
7801 S.
Figueroa Street
1937 1930: Silent sub station 50 x 109 x 52/2 stories; 9
rooms; concrete + terra cotta.

1938: Install “Municipal Power + Light” + “Station No.
41” in metal letters over door.
LAGE

BPL

V. Lankovsky (E)
Art Deco SLA
A/1/1/
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3
Survey LA lists property at
514 W. 78
th
Street with a
date of 1932. Property was
formerly an LAGE
substation.
43 Pico
5769 W. Pico
Boulevard
1937 1927: Silent sub station 50 x 100 4 rooms; reinforced
concrete + brick. $45,000.

1938: Remove existing terra cotta inscription, install
“Municipal Power + Light” inscription in terra cotta,
install “Station No. 43” in metal letters over door.

1988: New concrete shear walls + other seismic
strengthening.

LAGE

BPL

V. Lankovsky (D)
Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1

3S;
3CS;
5S3

45 Western
5516 S.
Western
1937 1924 or before: Permit for other LAGE work at this
address notes existing electrical station. SurveyLA
records 1926.

1938: Remove existing terra cotta inscription, install
new “Municipal Power + Light” + Station No. 45” in
terra cotta.

1963: Install concrete bond beam to brace existing
parapet walls.

1990: Strengthen building with shotcrete walls.

LAGE

BPL

DWP

DWP
Neoclassical SLA
A/1/1
C/3/3
3S;
3CS;
5S3

119 Ford
220 N. Henry
Ford Avenue
1937 No original permits.

Restroom 7 x 7 x 10.

Toilet in 30 x 30 x 16 Control House. $49,000.

27 Clovis
9916 Clovis
Avenue
1939 1939: Electrical substation 65 x 50 x 22/2 story; steel
frame + reinforced brick exterior. $20,000.

DWP Austin M. Hill (E) Late
Moderne

124
DWP
No.
DWP STATION
NAME +
LOCATION
DWP
DATE IN
SERVICE
PERMIT DATE, DESCRIPTION, + VALUE OWNER ARCHITECT/
DESIGNER +
ENGINEER
STYLE STATUS NOTES
47 Imperial
5455 W.
Imperial
Highway
1940 1940: Distributing station control house 26 x 19 x
15/1story; metal + cement plaster construction.
$1,900.

1966: Metal + concrete block 134 x 145 x 18 high
wall to screen station yard from public view. $25,000.

DWP

DWP
V. Lankovsky (E)

J. A. Hoffman (E)
Mid-century
Modern

123 Harbor City
25923
Frampton
Avenue
1940 No original permits for this or nearby addresses; no
permits for AIN
Address doesn’t show.

111 Vicksburg
9750 Vicksburg
Avenue or
9711
1942 No original permit.

1953: Toilet building.

1956: 12 x 20 shelter for crew.

23 Indiana
123 S. Indiana
Street
1958 1940: Electrical distributing station 124 x 53 x
24/1story; reinforced concrete with brick exterior.
$75,000.

DWP V. Lankovsky (E) Late
Moderne
SLA
C/3/3
A/1/1
3S;
3CS;
5S3

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This thesis investigates the development of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power power system and the artfully designed pre-World War II buildings that contain the technology of the nation’s largest power utility. These buildings contain equipment that generates, receives, and distributes electricity to residential, commercial, industrial, and street lighting customers. A large number are intact and continue to perform their function after seventy to one hundred years of use. This thesis will pay particular attention to distributing stations, the last step in the system before transmitting power to the consumer. Typically located at the points of greatest expected need as the city expanded, they exhibit a wide range of styles and are the ubiquitous facility that represents the brand of the power utility in each neighborhood. ❧ Chapter 1 traces the history of the power system, its relationship to the city’s water system, and how acquisition and consolidation created a centralized utility agency. Chapter 2 explains the technology of generating and delivering power. Chapter 3 examines the forces behind the system’s deliberate aesthetic strategy. Chapter 4 surveys the system’s distributing buildings and maps their locations, illustrating a growth pattern that parallels the physical expansion of Los Angeles. The conclusion summarizes the historic value of the power buildings and discusses how new historic information can inform a more thorough evaluation of their significance at the local, state, and national level.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Hodal, Stephanie Chilton (author)

Core Title Illuminating the grid: historic power buildings of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

School School of Architecture

Degree Master of Heritage Conservation

Degree Program Heritage Conservation

Publication Date 12/06/2018

Defense Date 12/06/2018

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Bureau of Los Angeles Aqueduct Power,Bureau of Power and Light,distributing station,DWP,LADWP,Los Angeles Department of Water and Power,OAI-PMH Harvest,receiving station,Roehrig,Scattergood

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Sandmeier, Trudi (committee chair), Deverell, William (committee member), Horak, Katie (committee member)

Creator Email hodal@usc.edu,schodal@hotmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-110793

Unique identifier UC11676697

Identifier etd-HodalSteph-6999.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-110793 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-HodalSteph-6999.pdf

Dmrecord 110793

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Hodal, Stephanie Chilton

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA