Water and Power Associates Informing the Public about Critical Water and Energy Issues facing Los Angeles and California

Historical Notes

At the corner of Riverside Drive and Los Feliz Boulevard in Los Feliz, spitting distance from the Los Angeles River, you’ll find a shrine to the “Father” of L.A.’s water system, William Mulholland – built approximately on the site where Mulholland once lived in a cabin, worked as a water laborer (technically a ditch-tender) and taught himself to be a civil engineer. Designed by Walter S. Claberg, the William Mulholland Memorial Fountain was originally dedicated in 1940, five years after the former water supervisor’s death, thanks largely to contributions and donations from local schoolchildren.

Historical Notes

In the main approach to the fountain memorial, a five-ton granite boulder that symbolizes the rugged character of William Mulholland has been placed. It was brought down from the hills above Haiwee Reservoir, where Mulholland saw it while the aqueduct was under construction and commented upon its pink beauty. Little could be visualize that more than a quarter century later it would be part of a memorial erected in his honor. But H. A. Van Norman, who was with him when he dropped the comment, did not forget. When the time came that a memorial was to be built, his suggestion that the granite boulder from Haiwee be used for the memorial inscription and to receive the documents that are to be permanently preserved was enthusiastically approved.^

The inscription reads as follows:

Historical Notes

The above photo comes from a 1955 article in the LA Times called Know Your City. The caption read: It’s the city's most colorful fountain, the memorial to William Mulholland, "father" of Los Angeles' water supply. Located at Riverside Drive and Los Feliz Blvd., the fountain's changing sprays are dramatically illuminated with varying colored lights. It was dedicated on 1940. And, yes as a boy, Mulholland lived in a ramshackle farm on this.

After occasional forced periods of dormancy (either because of oil rationing or droughts), the electrified fountain eventually fell into disrepair – but its mechanisms were reconstructed and the fountain was rededicated in 1996. It now lights up gloriously and colorfully at night.

Historical Notes

In 1976 the Mulholland Fountain was declared City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 162.

Historical Notes

The park that surrounds the fountain, the Los Angeles Aqueduct Centennial Garden, was built by LADWP crews in conjunction with the centennial celebration of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 2013. A walking path recreates the aqueduct’s 340-mile journey from the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains to L.A.’s San Fernando Valley, terminating at a replica of The Cascades. The commemorative garden also features a section of the original aqueduct pipe, 10 feet in diameter, water-wise landscaping and a bronze bas-relief portrait of Mulholland by Grace Banks Eldridge that was added in 1959.

Historical Notes

The Mulholland Dam was a concrete-arched gravity dam built as a large reservoir in the Hollywood Hills. The dam was built between August 1923 and December 1924 under the supervision of William Mulholland, chief engineer for the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Water Works and Supply. The reservoir formed behind the dam was called the Hollywood Reservoir (later Lake Hollywood) and would hold up to 2.5 billion gallons of water from the Owens River Aqueduct System (LA Aqueduct) and from the groundwater of the San Fernando Valley.

Historical Notes

Coincidence?  Dedication ceremonies for the Mulholland Dam were held on St. Patrick’s Day, Tuesday, March 17, 1925.  And, of course, William Mullholland was Irish (born in Belfast, Ireland, on September 11, 1855).

Historical Notes

This winding ridgeline road in the Santa Monica Mountains was dedicated in honor of William Mulholland, the water engineer who designed the Los Angeles Aqueduct, on Dec. 27, 1924. Originally dirt and called Mulholland Highway, the name was changed to Mulholland Drive in 1939. Portions of the original road remain unpaved.^*

Historical Notes

The house you see in the background still exists today and is below the Hollywood Sign. Click HERE for contemporary view.

Historical Notes

On the morning of the opening (Dec 27), William Mullholland dedicated the road with, what else, a bottle of aqueduct water. (Being prohibition, he couldn't use champagne). #^

Historical Notes

At the opening, Mullholland was 24 miles long - the solid line, running from Cahuenga Pass to Calabasas. The dotted line shows what was still to be constructed, Topanga Summit to the Ocean. Originally the road was of gravel surface treated with oil.

Historical Notes

Curving ingeniously through the eastern Santa Monicas, the Mulholland Drive motorway once brought a heavy slew of Angelenos into the Valley. In the early 1970s, however, 5,000 local activists successfully prevented the cement paving of most of that stretch. To this day, that section is known as 'Dirt Mulholland', and is only open to cyclists and pedestrians. From the famous Mulholland Bridge east, Mulholland Drive completes its creator's vision, and winds through the affluent Hollywood Hills to Mulholland Drive's easternmost terminus at Cahuenga Boulevard, near Universal Studios, until again becoming an unpaved footpath to Griffith Park.*^

◆ Mulholland Dam in the Hollywood Hills (1925)  

◆ Mulholland Pump Station, located below the dam at the intersection of San Marco Drive and Holly Drive (still in service)         

◆ Mulholland Tank, located just past the end of Creston Drive, NE of the pump station

◆ Mulholland Highway (1924)     

◆ Mulholland Drive (1939)

◆ WWII Liberty Ship SS William Mulholland, hull #677, launched December 1942 (scrapped in 1962)

◆ Mulholland Middle School, located at 17120 Vanowen Street, Lake Balboa, in the San Fernando Valley

In 1914, the University of California at Berkeley honored Mullholland with an honorary doctorate degree. The inscription on the diploma read, "Percussit saxa et duxit flumina ad terram sitientum" (He broke the rocks and brought the river to the thirsty land). Mulholland's public profile continued to grow. His offices were, at one point, on the top floor of Sid Grauman's Million Dollar Theater. He was even a favorite to become mayor of Los Angeles. However when asked if he was considering running for office he replied, "I'd rather give birth to a porcupine backward".

Mulholland's stature was also recognized internationally: he provided technical assistance during the construction of the Panama Canal.*#

Historical Notes

Newspaper tribute reads:

As a tribute to him as a great and leading citizen, who has contributed so much to posterity by his keen insite, we the undersigned, are proud to take this opportunity of giving public expression to the sentiments express above.

He Saw the Mountain and Cut It Away.
He Is Los Angeles’ Master of Progress.
He Is the Locomotive of Mental Energy.
He Is the Gate-Building of a New Empire of Wealth.
He Is a Living Monument of Vision.
He Is the Wise Man of Opportunity.
He Came.  He Saw.  He Conquered.
He is William Mulholland!

The Girard News was published in Girard (later renamed Woodland Hills) and served the communities of San Fernando, Van Nuys, Lankershim, Reseda, Owensmouth, Chatsworth, Rio Vista, Villa Vista, Pacoima, Zelzah, Weeks Colony, and other areas. This is page 3 of an 8-page section. Newspaper.