Frederick Eaton and William Mulholland
Frederick Eaton (1856-1934)*
Frederick Eaton was Mayor of Los Angeles from 1898-1900. During Eaton's administration, Congress approved San Pedro Harbor. The city had a population of 100,000 with 200 automibiles.
While Eaton was the Los Angeles Mayor he created the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and appointed William Mulhollland as superintendent and Chief Engineer. Both Eaton and Mulholland conceived the idea of bringing water to L.A. from the Owens Valley. Together they planned and developed the Los Angeles Aqueduct.
William Mulholland (1855-1935)*
In 1886, William Mulholland was hired by Frederick Eaton as a ditch-digger for for the newly formed Los Angeles Water Company (LAWC). Water was delivered to Pueblo de Los Angeles from the Los Angeles River in a large open ditch, the Zanja Madre. The man who tended the ditch was known as a zanjero.
In 1898, the Los Angeles city government decided not to renew the contract with the LAWC. Four years later the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) was established. Mulholland was selected by then Mayor Frederick Eaton to be the
DWP's first head.
William Mulholland will best be remembered for being the man most responsible for building the first Los Angeles Aqueduct. This 233 mile long aqueduct that brings water from the Owens River in the Eastern Sierras to Los Angeles would change L.A.'s future forever.
Click here for a more detailed bio of William Mulholland.
* DWP/L.A. Public Library Image Archive