The sign on the magnificent building says “MUNICIPAL LIGHT WATER POWER” so I’m assuming it’s a forerunner of what we here in LA now call the DWP (Department of Water and Power.) In 1936, when this photo was taken, it stood at the intersection of 59th Place and Vermont Ave, which put it a few miles south of downtown. For a utility company building, it’s pretty spectacular. Actually, it’s eye-catching for any sort of office building.
Andie P. says: “There were bright lights on that building. My dad had a photo of it lit up at night, that he had taken in about 1949.”
Matt H. says: “An interesting thing – the name of the entity included “Light,” as if it is a service provided separate from that provided by “Power,” which refers to electricity. “Light” sometimes referred to, archaically, gas service, which was how light was provided in the home prior to the prevalence of electricity. I wonder if that was the case in Los Angeles, and the agency eventually dropped the word in its name, to become simply Dept. of Water and Power?”
Tim I. says: “The DWP is owned by the City of LA (that would be by the taxpayers). The price of bringing water and electricity to consumers in the city is about half of what private companies in So Cal charge. I believe the architecture of the Department’s buildings also served as advertising for the agency. The old Water And Power headquarters (across from the Chandler Pavilion at The Music Center), later renamed the Ferraro Building, has a breathtaking light scheme that is sometimes lit during the holidays. I wish I had a photo of the building going at full-tilt.”
John J. says: “The actual story is always more interesting! DWP came from the merging of the Bureau of Water and the Bureau of Power and Light in 1937. Before then, In 1929 they hired movie cinema architect S. Charles Lee to design a number of combined offices in Hollywood, Lincoln Heights, North Hollywood, the one at 59th and Vermont, and as many as 17 in total. Lee also remodeled a Toberman warehouse into the Max Factor building in Hollywood.”
Surprisingly, there is still a DWP office on that site. Not-so-surprisingly, the 1936 building is no longer there. This image is from January 2023.