Photo Essay: The Academy Library at Beverly Hills Water Treatment Plant #1

For whatever reason, I spend a lot more time exploring the former ranchos outside of the city I live in, rather than devoting myself to really understanding my own backyard.

Yes, Beverly Hills was once part of a rancho, too.

In fact, "Rodeo Drive" is pronounced "Roe-day-oh" instead of "Roh-dee-yo" after the Spanish rodeo, as in Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas—or, "The Ranch of the Gathering of the Waters."

Yes, Beverly Hills also has its own water supply—though, when it was originally claimed in 1822 by Mexican settlers Maria Rita Valdez and her husband Vicente Valdez, the water took mostly the form of  swamps (a.k.a. cienegas).

And some of that former swampland is now La Cienega Boulevard—and there, in the vicinity of the trail and campsite of the 1769 Portolá Expedition (which brought the first Europeans to Beverly Hills), you can find Historic Civil Engineering Landmark No. 31: Beverly Hills Waterworks.

The facility was not just the first municipal water treatment plant on the West Coast and the first civic building of Beverly Hills. Its construction (and the formation of the Beverly Hills Utilities Corporation) allowed one of the earliest planned communities in southern California to stay independent of Los Angeles.

Because Beverly Hills had its own water—and, though it was sulfurous, a supply that could be filtered, purified, and used—it wouldn't need to be annexed into LA.


Photo: Security Pacific National Bank Collection, LAPL

This was a big deal—pushed through, in part, by silent film megastar Douglas Fairbanks—that required a building that lived up to its reputation of "Independence Hall." The resulting landmark incorporated Romanesque architecture with Moorish influences into an ecclesiastical facade (a "cathedral of water," as it were) with an industrial interior.


Photo: Security Pacific National Bank Collection, LAPL

The Waterworks opened in 1928 to much fanfare, and it successfully processed water for Beverly Hills for nearly 50 years. But it closed 1976, when Beverly Hills began buying its water from the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District.



Just five years after having been damaged by the Sylmar earthquake, the Waterworks building was rendered obsolete. And for 10 years, it stood abandoned—and vulnerable to vandals and vagrants. In 1987, way before the establishment of its historic preservation ordinance, the city approved the site for demolition, considering it a safety hazard.



It was only when an organization was willing to "pick up the tab" that the city government stood behind its preservation—and so it reopened in 1991, the 25th anniversary year of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 that created the National Register.



So, who ended up picking up the $5 million tab to rehabilitate the place?



None other than the organization founded by Douglas Fairbanks himself, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences  (for which he also served as president).



The Academy's library—founded in 1928, the same year the Waterworks opened—had already outgrown a couple of other spaces and was looking for a new home.



The grandiose concrete block construction in an L-shaped footprint with terra-cotta roof tiles, archways, gables, and other architectural embellishments seemed to fit the bill.



Even vandalized, the property had retained integrity from its period of significance—including the bell tower, which hid the chimney that burned off the sulfur in the purification process.



The new library facility (which included the addition of a new west wing) opened in Beverly Hills just five years after being saved from the bulldozer...



...now named after Douglas Fairbanks and Margaret Herrick, who was the Academy librarian from 1936 to 1943 and its executive director from 1945 to 1971.

It's actually open to the public—not just to Academy members, actors, film students, or film scholars—although when you go, you have to really know what you're looking for. Because it's a non-circulating library (that doesn't loan out its materials), much of the archives contained herein aren't just out on the shelves. Instead, you've got to request that they be pulled.



But fortunately, the Academy was offering a tour to the library...



...which provided a special opportunity to peruse the building and its collection...



...without looking for anything in particular.



It doesn't matter whether or not you're interested in movie history, because the restoration work on this building is stunning. It's hard to believe it's the same place as in those old photos.



It's worth a visit—just to be able to look out that rose window from the inside.



The view has changed a bit, and the swamps are gone, but fortunately the area surrounding the old water treatment plant still feels like parkland.



The palm trees are a little taller now, but there's really nothing else obstructing the view.



Beyond the various tomes on the shelves...



...the library also houses 12 million physical images...



...including many production shots, promotional stills, costume and makeup test shots, and behind the scenes photos (in the form of prints, slides, and negatives).



They've also got storyboards from movies like Ghostbusters...



...Silence of the Lambs...



...and Grease.



There's an array of costume sketches...



...other one-of-a-kind illustrations done by hand...



...as well as scripts, periodicals, press releases and clippings, letters, pamphlets, posters, and production art.



And then, of course, are the items that have yet to be restored or digitized. The Academy has 30 years left of their 55-year lease, so hopefully, they'll get to it all.

But their collection continues to grow, as donations come in from the estates of passed directors, producers, actors, and other crew people. It's hard to turn anything down, although they do. There just isn't enough room for multiple copies of things, or for archives of items that aren't very unique.

At some point, they might grow out of this space, too. Nothing is saved forever, so the time to appreciate it is NOW.

You can see another construction photo here and the complete architectural details of its historic significance here.



Related Posts:
Photo Essay: Los Angeles Central Library, Twice Threatened, Twice Saved
Photo Essay: Wilshire May Company Building, Miracle Mile
Photo Essay: Geisel Library, UCSD Campus
Photo Essay: The Power Plants of the St. Francis Dam Disaster

Photo Essay: Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Where Dead Stars Still Draw Crowds

[Last updated 9/17/23 10:20 PM PT—Removed photo/mention of Alfred Hitchcock, as he's not buried at Hollywood Forever.]

Every year, around this time of year, I think I might like to go check out the Día de Muertos event at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California—the largest of its kind outside of Mexico. But the closer it gets to the date, the more reticent I become to deal with the festiveness of the festivities.

 

Well, this won't be my year to go, as the event—which usually occurs a few days before the Day of the Dead—is canceled for COVID-19. 

But I'm kind of relieved. And kind of grateful, too. Because the pandemic has allowed me to visit Hollywood Forever a few times on a weekday, without the crowds, and with nothing special going on except the cemetery itself. 

In the nearly 10 years that I've lived in LA, Hollywood Forever has really become a thing—partially because of its outdoor movie screenings and its concerts and other events at the Masonic Lodge.

Most of the building is part of the cemetery’s administration complex. It's the upstairs main meeting room—the "lodge"—that's got the most esoteric origins, with its wood beam ceilings and mystical energy. 

Designated a national historic landmark, the Morgan, Walls and Clements-designed lodge was completed in 1931 with interiors (including lighting fixtures and furnishings) also designed by the firm in the Spanish Renaissance style. 

On the outside, the Spanish Baroque-style structure has been stripped of many of its visible ties to freemasonry—but it once served as the home base for the members of the Southland Lodge No. 617, who used the entire complex as a community center until the 1960s. 

That part of the cemetery stood essentially abandoned for three decades—despite being at the main entrance.

Hollywood Forever—which Isaac Van Nuys and his father-in-law Isaac Lankershim opened in 1899 as Hollywood Cemetery—is perhaps best-known for its celebrity grave sites. It is Hollywood, after all. And it's directly behind the Paramount Studios lot, too.  

  

As with most cemeteries, I'm a bit more interested in the art and architecture (like of the chapel and the  columbarium dome behind it, both circa 1928). 

But Hollywood Forever (also formerly known as Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery) has the added bonus of peafowl, which have resided there for over 15 years. 

clock tower (built 1930)

On the west side of Hollywood Forever—with entrances off of Gower Street (named after Hollywood pioneer Mary Love Gower, who once owned the land)—is the Beth Olam Jewish Cemetery. 

                  

That's where you'll find the final resting place of Mel Blanc, the "Man of 1,000 Voices" (Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester the Cat, Porky Pig)...

...and actress Estelle Getty, who was born the daughter of Polish Jews and not, like her character Sophia from The Golden Girls, Italians from Sicily. 

Hollywood pioneers are buried at this cemetery, too...

...like Paramount co-founder Jesse Lasky, producer of The Squaw Man (also namesake of the Lasky-DeMille Barn, Hollywood's "first movie studio," which now houses Hollywood Heritage).

The Abbey of the Psalms Mausoleum, designed by Marston & Maybury, started out in the 1930s...

...and has grown over time to also include the Sanctuary of Memories (and of Faith, Light, Trust, and so on). 

With the 8-foot, bronze statue of Johnny Ramone in 2004, Hollywood Forever also solidified its status as a destination for music fans...

...looking to pay tribute to their favorite punk idols...

...which also include Johnny's bandmate, Dee Dee Ramone, who's buried just down the way. 

Johnny isn't actually buried there yet—his ashes will be interred there after his wife, who is holding onto them, passes away. 

His neighbor in the (Sound)Garden of Legends will be fellow rocker Chris Cornell, who was buried next to the statue in 2017.  

They're both near the south shore of Sylvan Lake—one of two original lakes (the other one, more centrally located, has since been filled in)—where the Classical Revival-style Clark Family Mausoleum (circa 1920, by Robert Farquhar) occupies Clark Island, both named after Los Angeles Philharmonic founder William Andrews Clark, Jr. 

 

Facing the Italian carrera marble monolith is a likeness of Russian-born actor Anton Yelchin, who died at the age of 27 in 2016.

In addition to bronze statues, a number of other memorials can be created by Hollywood Forever's in-house studio of stonemasons. 

That helps make each gravesite a special destination in its own right—like the one for Terry, the dog who portrayed "Toto" in The Wizard of Oz (though she was actually buried at a pet cemetery that was destroyed for the construction of the 101 Freeway).

The last new structure to be built is the Fairbanks Memorial Reflecting Pool in Fairbanks Gardens (circa 1939), named after swashbuckling sex symbol Douglas Fairbanks. 

 

It sits just west of the Italian Renaissance-style Hollywood Cathedral Mausoleum, designed by the Pasadena architectural team Marston and Van Pelt. It was constructed out of California granite and completed in 1922. 

     

That's where Mickey Rooney is buried, his interment visible from the exterior. 

Inside, the crypts are covered in slabs of Alabama marble...

...some, like that of silent film-era Hollywood heartthrob Rudolph Valentino, flanked by bronze urns. 

Tjere are shrines to those interred in the mausoleum, too—like to actor Peter Lorre in the Alcove of Reverence. 

 

Even the darker corners of the mausoleum—where the niches are less often frequented by fans—there is vibrant color and light, thanks to panels of stained glass windows.

 

Some were fabricated by American Art Glass Co., circa 1945...

 

...while others don't carry an artist signature or maker's mark (though Judson Studios is known to have contributed art glass to the Cathedral Mausoleum, perhaps the skylights). 

    

While Hollywood Forever was one of the first "lawn park"-style cemeteries in California, the burial plots currently aren't restricted to just low-profile markers. But Cecile B. DeMille's sarcophagus is surprisingly modest for such a heralded director. [Ed: Previously I had a photo here of a tombstone marked "HITCHCOCK" that I attributed to director Alfred Hitchcock, which is incorrect. Rookie mistake. I removed it on 9/17/23. ] 

When I visit, I like to make a loop from the Santa Monica Boulevard gate entrance, through the cemetery, and back to the exit by passing the old pump house...

...so I can try to spot any of the feral cats that the cemetery helps feed and shelter. 

 

The cats tend to hang out just east of the bird pens, where dozens of peacocks can escape the crowds or head out onto 64 acres of lawn for a little strutting and grooming. 

                

Although I think I've seen each of the cemetery's 40 peacocks and peahens over the course of a handful of visits, I still haven't made it to the final resting places of Judy Garland, Bugsy Siegel, Tyrone Power, Marion Davies, Griffith J. Griffith, or Harry Chandler. 

And I'm sure there are other "must-see" graves that I've been missing out on.

But I'll surely be back. Especially if this pandemic continues to drone on like it has. 

For a full history of Hollywood Forever up until 1999, click here. 

Related Posts:

Photo Essay: The Faces of Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Photo Essay: The (Mostly) Locked Gardens of Forest Lawn Glendale