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:
I don’t normally post images from as late as 1972, but I’m a sucker for color photos, especially if they’re of one of LA’s most iconic buildings: the Bullocks Wilshire department store. We’re looking west along Wilshire Blvd from Commonwealth Ave. The building on the right was originally called The Town House. It opened in 1929, became a Sheraton in 1954, and closed in 1993. Can anyone tell me what the white car at the corner is? It looks very 70s!
And from the “What We Lost in the March of Progress” file comes this magnificent building that I had never heard of until I came across this photo. It was known officially as the Los Angeles Federal Courthouse and Post Office building and stood at the corner of Main and Winston Sts, downtown LA. Housing the Southern District of California, a U.S. post office, and the customs office, it was only used from 1892 to 1901. That’s not a very long run, but LA was growing so quickly that it wasn’t nearly big enough for its tenants. But 1905 it was a fenced-off derelict and although I couldn’t find when exactly it was razed, I imagine it was probably around then. (Source: Water & Power Assoc)
At Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd, there have been movie premieres, and there have been lavish movie premieres, but I can’t think of any that have topped the spectacle Howard Hughes put on for the opening of his $2.8 million WWI flying drama, “Hell’s Angels.” I’m guessing this shot was taken from the nearby Roosevelt Hotel, and even though it’s grainy, this image captures the energy, the excitement, the crowds, and all the light pouring onto and from Grauman’s Chinese. In a couple of places, you can make out the large model aircraft slung across the boulevard—I wonder whatever happened to them. This memorable night took place on May 27, 1930 ahead of an 18-week run. (Incidentally, the $2.8 million budget roughly translates to $50 million today.)
A couple of days ago I posted a photo looking 
Here we have a vibrant circa-1950s photo looking east along Wilshire from the eastern end of MacArthur Park. Past the trees on the left, we can see the top of the huge sign for the Westlake Theatre (MacArthur Park was known as Westlake Park until 1942.) And in the center is one of those Wilshire Special streetlights which were designed for and installed only along Wilshire Blvd. But what I really like are these splashes of color of the (what we now call) classic automobiles.
The person who sent me this photo of the St George Apartments at 1245 Vine St in Hollywood asked me if I knew what the sign at over the alley at the far left – “The Old World” referred to. Below it, another sign reads “ES RENTALS” so maybe The Old World rented out vehicles? I could find no reference to it in any online LA City Directory, so does anyone reading this know? Aside from that, what a gorgeous apartment building it is, especially that white curved archway in the middle. I also love how each store has completely different signage but “King’s Food & Health” has a sign in the window “Juice Bar.” But cars parked out front are circa 1947, and I wouldn’t have thought many places in LA offered a juice bar. It feels like more of a 1960s thing when the macrobiotic diet became popular.
Here we have an image (from the quality of it, it looks like it’s a still from a film) that gives us an idea what local stores looked like in the late 1930s. The 3000 block of Vermont Ave was anchored by Alexander’s Market and its vertical signage. Next door is Mode O’ Day, which was a chain of affordable women’s wear (one report I found said that at its peak, there were 700 stores nationwide.) Next to it is GallenKamp Shoes, which I’ve never heard of but you’ve got to love that starting price of $3.95. (That’s the 2025 equivalent of around $90, which is what I paid for my last pair of Sketchers, so that sounds about right. (Source: Calisphere)
In 1881, General Harrison Grey Otis (a Union Army officer during the Civil War) started the Los Angeles Times, and in 1898, built this home on the north side of Wilshire Blvd at Park View St. It overlooked Westlake Park (now MacArthur Park) and reminds us that once upon a yesteryear, Wilshire, which these days is filled largely with commercial buildings, was once home to elaborate mansions like this. It must have been quite sumptuous inside, too, because President William McKinley enjoyed an overnight stay in 1901. After Otis’s death in 1917, the home was transformed into Otis Art Institute, which was LA’s first independent professional school of art. I’ve seen later photos of this house and those trees out front were much bigger so I’m guessing this photo was taken around the turn of the century. (Source: Urban Diachrony)
