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.
Back in the good old days when we knew how to build eye-catching storefronts comes this circa 1936 gem. This Art Deco jewel stood at 611 West 7th St in downtown Los Angeles, and was home to Silverwoods department store and Stetson Hats for Women. I find it amazing that the builders went to the trouble of including that bas relief across the top when, three stories high, the chances of anyone seeing it was fairly low.
At first glance, it would be easy to think you’re looking at the forecourt of some French chateau and Italian palazzo. But nope. This is the forecourt of the Beverly Hills City Hall at 455 North Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills. With its matching fountains and young palm trees, the photo was taken around 1932, the year the city hall opened. There are a lot of tacky pockets of Los Angeles, but this isn’t one of them.
When Crossroads of the World at 6671 Sunset Blvd opened on October 29, 1936, it was one of America’s first planned outdoor shopping malls, o of course it deserved a big splashy opening, complete with searchlights scraping the sky. The place is kind of amazing with seven architectural styles: Cape Cod, French, Italian Renaissance, Mediterranean, Moorish, Spanish Colonial, and Streamline Moderne. I’d imagine Angelenos seeing it for the first time must have been popping their eyes wide open.
In 1958, three years after Capitol Records opened their iconic building, they started an annual tradition of decorating the top of their building with lights that resemble a Christmas tree. In this shot we’re looking south down Vine St circa 1970 (if that 1968 Chevrolet Bel Air on the right is anything to go by.)
From the angle of this photo, I’d say it was taken from the top of the building on the northeast corner of Hollywood Blvd and Las Palmas Ave looking west along the south side of the boulevard. We can see lit signs for the Gold Cup coffee shop, Union Pacific railway ticket office, a record store, the Egyptian Theatre, and the Hollywood Inn (formerly the Hotel Christie.) From the electrified Christmas trees decorating the store and the fact that “Hawaii” was playing at the Egyptian, we can narrow down the date of this shot to Christmas 1966.
Ever since I first saw the movie “American Graffiti” I knew that cruising up and down one of the boulevards in the San Fernando Valley part of Los Angeles was a popular Saturday night ritual. But I never quite realized that Van Nuys Blvd got *this* packed with kids looking for love, trouble, and adventure. The A-framed building on the right is 
According to the caption on this photo, some sort of sporting event was happening on the grounds of the Hotel Green, a large and luxurious hotel that opened in 1893 in Pasadena, where it quickly became a social hub. In the background we can see the turret of the nearby Santa Fe Railroad station, which was conveniently placed for guests arriving by train to escape the harsh winters back East. But what intrigues me most about this (I’m guessing circa early 1900s?) photo is that very tall pole in the foreground. Why is it so tall? Is it a streetlight? A beacon? Suggestions, anyone?
In this atmospheric nighttime shot, we’re looking north up Vine St from Sunset Blvd. It was taken on the night of July 27, 1948, and we can see all the neon signs that greeted Angelenos at the time: Broadway-Hollywood department store, Plaza Hotel, Tom Breneman’s restaurant, Capitol Records, as well as the semaphore traffic signal on the southeast corner of Sunset. But I especially love the way the streetlights look like starbursts (which I assume comes from a special filter on the camera.
In this photo from 1925, we’re treated to a glimpse of Wilshire Blvd’s wild west days, i.e. before traffic lanes were painted on the road. We’re looking east along Wilshire Blvd from the Gaylord Apartments. That construction site with the tower that resembles a rocket is the Immanuel Presbyterian Church at Berendo St. The streetlights known as Wilshire Specials (because they were only on Wilshire) have been installed, and those tress paralleling the sidewalk look like they haven’t been there long. But what is that thick white line painted on the road near the center of the photo? Suggestions, anyone?
