On March 12-13, 1928, the St. Francis Dam north of Santa Clarita suffered a catastrophic failure which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 430 people. One of the consequences of the disaster was a reassessment of the Mulholland Dam, which holds Hollywood Reservoir aka Lake Hollywood. A succession of panels came to the conclusion that it would be best that the front of Mulholland Dam (which had opened in December 1924) was reinforced with approximately 330,000 cubic yards of dirt and fill material. Here we have a photo of that massive undertaking in late 1933/early 1934. Not only did all that dirt support the dam, but it also helped Angelenos forget the failure of the St. Francis Dam. I have more photos of this huge enterprise on my website. (Source: Water & Power Associates)
On YouTube there is a video called “The St. Francis Dam Disaster: Visiting the Ruins of the 1928 Catastrophe.”
Gary H. said: “AND they not only lowered the water level a lot, they divided the reservoir into the upper and lower sections, further reducing stress on the dam. Most people don’t realize that the lake is now purely decorative after these massive underground tanks were built on the north end in 2002. Each holds 30 million gallons of water.”
This is roughly how the dam looks now. I took these photos myself on March 3, 2025
This shot is looking south across Hollywood:
Very nice photos Martin! That Hollywood Reservoir saved Hollywood in January getting the Sunset Fire doused fast enough!
Thanks, Martin. A work of art. Love those dump trucks. There have been so many movies and tv shows shot up there, because of the architecture and the view. It’s stunning. The dam disaster was due to the lack of reinforcement, many documentaries about it. Torrential rains and flooding that came out of nowhere. I think climate change has been around a lot longer than we thought.