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PHOTOGRAPHS
WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA
FIELD RECORDS
HAER CA-2318HAER CA-2318
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY SUBSTATIONS,MONUMENTAL TYPE2244 Walnut Grove AvenueRosemeadLos Angeles CountyCalifornia
HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORDNational Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240-0001
HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY SUBSTATIONS: MONUMENTAL TYPE
HAER NO. CA-‐2318 Locations: There are 13 substations within the SCE service territory that are identified as the
Monumental property type. Addresses and locational data for each of the 13 substations are identified as follows:
#1. Colton Substation: 343 S. Mount Vernon Avenue West, Colton, San Bernardino County, California. Latitude/Longitude: 34.058798°N, 117.314262°W (Substation Building); 34.059107°N, 117.314096°W (Communication and Dispatcher’s Building).
#2. Eagle Rock Substation Property: 7888 N. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. Latitude/Longitude: 34.149852°N, 118.18344°W.
# 3. Magunden Substation Property: 7500 Mills Drive, Bakersfield, Kern County, California. Latitude/Longitude: 35.361369°N, 118.922898°W.
#4. Chino Substation Property: 14005 S. Benson Avenue, Chino, San Bernardino County, California. Latitude/Longitude: 33.997618°N, 117.680722°W.
#5. Newmark Substation Property: 1319 South Garfield Avenue, Monterey Park, Los Angeles County, California. Latitude/Longitude: 34.045585°N, 118.128984°W. #6. La Fresa Substation Property: 17680 Yukon Avenue, Torrance, Los Angeles County, California. Latitude/Longitude: 33.869315°N, 118.33275°W. #7. Laguna Bell Substation Property: 6301 S. Garfield Avenue, Commerce, Los Angeles County, California. Latitude/Longitude: 33.975669°N, 118.147198°W; 33.976758°N, 118.148539°W (Warehouse).
#8. Rector Substation Property: 28361 Road 148, Visalia, Tulare County, California. Latitude/Longitude: 36.304753°N, 119.243717°W.
#9. Bixby Substation Property: 1719 E. Fourth Street, Long Beach, Los Angeles County, California. Latitude/Longitude: 33.772137°N, 118.170466°W. #10. Dalton Substation Property: 16016 E. Gladstone Street, Irwindale, Los Angeles County, California. Latitude/Longitude: 34.114132°N, 117.933337°W. #11. Puente Substation Property: Anaheim and Puente Road and Arenth Avenue, City of Industry, Los Angeles County, California. Latitude/Longitude: 34.008874°N, 117.930041°W. #12. Santa Monica Substation Property: Colorado Avenue at 9th Street, Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California. Latitude/Longitude: 34.017377°N, 118.487788°W. #13. Saugus Substation Property: 25100 Magic Mountain Parkway, Santa Clarita, Los Angeles County, California. Latitude/Longitude: 34.422687°N, 118.574584°W.
Owner: Southern California Edison Company 2244 Walnut Grove Avenue, Rosemead, CA 91770
Present Use: Transmission, step-‐down, and distribution of electric power Significance: The SCE Historic-‐Era Monumental Substation Buildings were constructed between 1912-‐
1915 and 1923-‐1940. These Monumental type buildings were designed with an observant Classical Revival or Period Revival architectural style on an otherwise utilitarian property type. The aesthetic qualities of the buildings combined with the overall massing and scale culminate in a monumental appearance. The buildings embody the distinctive characteristics of SCE’s substation programming and aesthetic ideology for substation buildings. Some of the substation buildings are associated with the industrialization of the Southern California or Los Angeles regions, and also for serving as part of the backbone of SCE’s early 66kV system or the 220kV system. Three of the substations were interconnection points between electric companies. Additionally some of the substation buildings are associated with the SCE Big Creek Hydroelectric System with a period of significance from 1911-‐1929.
Summaries for each of the Monumental Substation Buildings are included below.
#1. Colton Substation: With an observant Classical and Period Revival influence, the Colton Substation Building and its associated Communication and Dispatcher’s Building, embody SCE architectural programming and the aesthetic model employed at substations in the historic era. The periods of significance are 1912 and circa 1924.
The Colton Substation was important as a principal nexus between San Bernardino County
and a few power sources: Los Angeles Plant No. 3, Mill Creek No.1, and the Santa Ana River Powerhouse No.1 and 2. The construction of the substation is also associated with the increase of the SCE transmission lines from 30,000 to 66,000 volts and the complete conversion of the lines from wood poles to steel towers. Power came into the substation at 66,000 volts and 33,000 volts and was stepped down to 33,000 volts and 10,000 volts before it left the substation for local use. The Colton Substation was additionally a major point of interconnection between SCE and Southern Sierras Power Company, allowing the companies to exchange power from 1918 to 1948. A frequency changer in the substation converted between the 50-‐cycle frequency of the SCE system and the 60-‐cycle of Southern Sierras Power Company until SCE switched over to the 60-‐cycle standard in 1948. The associated Communication and Dispatcher's Building was also important in routing the communications between substations in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. The periods of significance are 1918-‐1948 for the Substation Building and circa 1924-‐1948 for the Communication and Dispatcher’s Building.
#2. Eagle Rock Substation Property: In its current appearance, configuration, and condition the Eagle Rock Substation property comprised of the main substation building and entry pillars, represents a significant example of SCE Substation design and construction in the historic-‐era when the company created utilitarian substation properties with architectural value in mind. The property was constructed as the southern terminus of the Big Creek Hydroelectric System, which produced and conveyed electricity to Los Angeles and helped to industrialize the region.
The Eagle Rock substation property was initially constructed and owned by the Pacific Light and Power Corporation as the terminus of the Big Creek Hydroelectric System to convey electricity to the Los Angeles area. As such the Eagle Rock Substation property, comprised of the Main Substation Building and the entry pillars, is considered a contributing element to the Big Creek Hydroelectric System Historic District (BCHSHD.
As an individual building, the Eagle Rock Substation Building is historically significant for its
association with the Big Creek Hydroelectric System as the southern terminus of the system and as one of nine substations that established the “backbone” of the SCE 220kV system. The substation also held greater importance to the city of Los Angeles, because power was directed from Eagle Rock substation to the trolleys. The railway's tracks covered Los Angeles and its surrounding cities. The electricity from Big Creek Hydroelectric System, as demarcated by its southern terminus at the Eagle Rock substation, also lit residences in Los Angeles. Overall, the Big Creek Hydroelectric System, of which the Eagle Rock substation was a part, provided for the growth and development of the Los Angeles region. Additionally the Main Substation Building represents a distinctive period in the architectural history of SCE's (and its predecessor companies) substation programming wherein architectural aesthetics were incorporated into the design and construction of substation buildings. The building is distinctive and monumental, designed to include a multi-‐part vertical block massing applied to commercial buildings in the early 1900s. The large size and elegant massing of the building convey the importance of the substation being the southern connection point from the Big Creek Hydroelectric System. In contrast to the six stories of the Eagle Rock Main Substation Building, most electric substations of the era were one to three stories. When completed, the Eagle Rock Main Substation Building substation was largest of its kind in the world and was regarded as one of the largest substations in Southern California into the 1920s.1 The building represents an early period of substation architectural programming wherein a historicist aesthetic was still employed. The period of significance for the Eagle Rock Main Substation Building, as an individually eligible property, is 1913 (upon completion of construction) through 1929 (the end date for the BCHSD established period of significance) consistent with the established period of significance for the BCHSHD. # 3. Magunden Substation Property: As a key transmission element of the Big Creek Hydroelectric System, the Magunden Substation appears to be a contributing element of the Big Creek Hydroelectric System Historic District (BCHSHD). In addition to contributing to the BCHSHD, Magunden Substation appears to be a significant representative of SCE’s early twentieth century substation design. The facility is indicative of SCE’s rapid proliferation during the period, which saw an increase in agricultural and urban electrification across the San Joaquin Valley. In addition, Magunden Substation acted as a switching station for several utilities during the historic period until SCE switched over to the 60-‐cycle standard in 1948. It is indicative of the increasingly complex utility framework that developed across California during the 1920s. In addition, Magunden Substation also exemplifies the architectural and planning ideals that characterized SCE and general utility development during the period, with a heightened classical treatment, monumental form, and self-‐contained residential component that was characterized by extensive on-‐site residential development. The two periods of significance are 1914 (upon completion of construction) through 1929 (the end date for the BCHSD established period of significance) and 1918 (estimated year for start of frequency changing) through 1948 (the end year for the frequency changing).
#4. Chino Substation Property: The Chino Substation Building is considered to be associated with the early growth period and development history of the City of Chino, and for embodying SCE’s early expansion and service-‐provision period (1899-‐1915) and the Stripped Classical style of architecture executed for SCE buildings during the 1899-‐1915 period. The period of significance is 1912.
1 “Tremendous Electric Force at Our Door,” Los Angeles Times, November 2, 1913.
#5. Newmark Substation Property: The Newmark Substation Building is one of the earliest constructed substations extant in the SCE portfolio, and is one of the six substations that form SCE’s historic 66kV sub-‐transmission system. The Newmark Substation is part of that finite 66kV system that also includes the Redondo, Chino, Colton, Lindsay, and Puente Substations. The Newmark Substation Building embodies the distinctive characteristics of SCE’s architectural program and aesthetic ideology in the historic period with its Classical Revival style of architecture and minimal Art Deco articulations, monumental appearance, and Classical form and massing. It is a significant example of a Classical Revival substation building. The period of significance is identified as 1913.
#6. La Fresa Substation Property: The La Fresa Main Substation Building is one of nine substations that form SCE’s historic 220kV transmission system. This 220kV system helped to industrialize Southern California and Los Angeles. The La Fresa Main Substation Building is part of that finite 220kV system that also includes Lighthipe, Laguna Bell, Eagle Rock, Gould, Saugus, Magunden, Vestal, and Rector Substations, and the existing Big Creek East & West and Vincent 220kV Transmission Lines. The building embodies the distinctive characteristics of SCE’s architectural programming and aesthetic ideology in the historic period with its Art Deco façade details applied to the symmetrically composed building. The building is one of the first Art Deco substation properties observed to-‐date in the SCE portfolio, and demonstrates the broad application of SCE’s architectural styles employed in the historic-‐period which ranged from Classical Revival and various Period Revival styles, to this more modern Art Deco example. The property embodies the distinctive characteristics of SCE’s aesthetic ideology for substations and is a significant example of an Art Deco substation building. The period of significance is identified as 1930. #7. Laguna Bell Substation Property: The Laguna Bell Substation appears to be a contributing element of the Big Creek Hydroelectric System Historic District (BCHSHD). The Laguna Bell Substation property comprised of the main substation building and the warehouse, is associated with the historic Big Creek Hydroelectric System and the SCE 220kV system in its position as an end point in the Eagle Rock-‐Laguna Bell line that connected to the Big Creek hydroelectric system. The substation and its 1927 building extension helped to meet the increasing demand for electricity from nearby cities and industries, facilitating the development and industrialization of central Los Angeles County. Additionally, the substation building and related original warehouse are associated with the historically significant Vincent 220kV Transmission Line (put in-‐service between 1925-‐1927) and the Eagle-‐Rock-‐Laguna Bell tap line (in-‐service by 1929), having served as one of the main substations for the transmissions lines conveying electricity from the Big Creek Hydroelectric System to the Los Angeles region. The main substation building is also an excellent example of the Stripped Classical style applied to a substation building. The period of significance for the property is 1924, upon completion of construction, through 1929, the end of the Big Creek Hydroelectric System period of significance. #8. Rector Substation Property: The Rector Substation appears to be a contributing element of the Big Creek Hydroelectric System Historic District (BCHSHD). The substation is a significant representative of early twentieth century SCE substation design. The facility is indicative of SCE’s rapid proliferation during the period, which saw an increase in agricultural and urban electrification across the San Joaquin Valley. Rector Substation acted as a switching station during the historic period until SCE switched over to the 60-‐cycle standard in 1948. In addition, Rector Substation exemplifies the architectural and planning ideals that characterized SCE and general utility development during the period,
with a heightened Art Deco inspired architectural treatment, monumental form, and self-‐contained residential component that was characterized by extensive on-‐site residential development. Further, the design of the property is illustrative of evolving stylistic mandates in industrial design, as classically inspired industrial facilities yielded to a more modern Art Deco inspired rhetoric in the 1920s. The period of significance is 1928 (upon completion of construction) through 1929 (the end date for the BCHSD established period of significance) and 1928 (upon completion of construction) through 1948 (the end year for the frequency changing).
Historians: Wendy L. Tinsley Becker, AICP, RPH, Principal and Christina Chiang, M.A., Associate
Architectural Historian, Urbana Preservation & Planning, LLC | June 2015, Finalized October 2015.
Project Information: Report prepared by Christina Chiang, M.A., Associate Architectural Historian and Wendy L.
Tinsley Becker, AICP, RPH, Principal of Urbana Preservation & Planning, LLC. Existing conditions photographs by David G. DeVries of Mesa Technical. Project sponsored by Southern California Edison Company.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY SUBSTATIONS: MONUMENTAL TYPE HAER NO. CA-‐2318
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INTRODUCTION As part of an effort to identify and manage all historic-‐era substations within its service territory, SCE has developed a typology for its significant substation buildings to inform the creation of a HAER documentation package for each substation type identified. There are six types of historic-‐era substations within the SCE service territory: Monumental, Commercial, Residential, Civic, Religious, and Atypical. This HAER documentation package with contextual and site-‐specific information has been prepared for the Monumental substation type. The Monumental type substation buildings are significant examples of SCE Substation design and construction in the historic era when the company created substation properties with architectural value and aesthetics in mind. This HAER package includes documentation for eight of the 13 SCE Monumental Substation Properties, as well as large format views of the SCE Colton Substation, one of the eight documented properties, which includes the Main Substation Building and a Dispatch Building. Both buildings exhibit a typical appearance of the SCE Monumental Substation Type, and are considered representative of the typology. Digital views of the 12 previously unphotographed Monumental Type Substation properties are intended for inclusion in this HAER report as part of a future Amendment. Documentation of the five previously undocumented Monumental Type Substation Properties are intended for inclusion in this HAER package as part of a future Amendment.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY SUBSTATIONS: MONUMENTAL TYPE HAER NO. CA-‐2318
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PHYSICAL HISTORY Put in service between 1912 and 1915 and 1923 and 1938, the SCE Monumental type substation buildings were designed with an observant Classical Revival or Period Revival architectural style on an otherwise utilitarian property type. The aesthetic qualities of the buildings combined with the overall massing and scale culminate in a monumental appearance. The buildings were designed to serve as transmission, step-‐down, and distribution points within the SCE system. Some of the substations were designed for distribution only. Others were designed to function as interconnection points that tied SCE’s system to other utility providers as part of the larger power grid. Monumental type substation buildings were usually constructed of reinforced concrete over one-‐to-‐six stories, with limited façade articulations in a Block, Box, or Multi-‐Part form described as follows. Block Subtype There are two substations of this subtype: Eagle Rock and Magunden. These buildings are over three stories. They have bays of windows and overhangs. Eagle Rock Substation Date of Construction: 1913 Engineer: Stone and Webster Builder: Stone and Webster Magunden Substation Date of Construction: 1923 Engineer: Stone and Webster Builder: Stone and Webster Box Subtype There are six substations of this subtype: Bixby, Chino, Colton, Newmark, Puente, and Santa Monica. These buildings have either cornice or recessed panels to make these rectangular-‐plan buildings monumental. Bixby Substation Date of Construction: 1924 Engineer: Southern California Edison, Department of Engineering Design Builder: Southern California Edison Chino Substation Date of Construction: 1912 Engineer: Southern California Edison, Department of Engineering Design Builder: Southern California Edison Colton Substation Date of Construction: 1912 Engineer: Southern California Edison, Department of Engineering Design Builder: Southern California Edison Newmark Substation Date of Construction: 1913 Engineer: Southern California Edison, Department of Engineering Design Builder: Southern California Edison
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY SUBSTATIONS: MONUMENTAL TYPE HAER NO. CA-‐2318
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Puente Substation Date of Construction: 1915 Engineer: Southern California Edison, Department of Engineering Design Builder: Southern California Edison Santa Monica Substation Date of Construction: 1938 Engineer: Southern California Edison, Department of Engineering Design Builder: Southern California Edison Multi-‐Part Subtype There are five substations of this subtype: Dalton, La Fresa, Laguna Bell, Rector, and Saugus. These buildings have modernized Classical Revival or Stripped Classical features, such as pediments and piers, and are organized in two or three parts. Dalton Substation Date of Construction: 1927 Engineer: Southern California Edison, Department of Engineering Design Builder: Southern California Edison La Fresa Substation Date of Construction: 1930 Engineer: Southern California Edison, Department of Engineering Design Builder: Southern California Edison Laguna Bell Substation Date of Construction: 1923 Engineer: Southern California Edison, Department of Engineering Design Builder: Southern California Edison Rector Substation Date of Construction: 1927 Engineer: Southern California Edison, Department of Engineering Design Builder: Southern California Edison Saugus Substation Date of Construction: 1924 Engineer: Southern California Edison, Department of Engineering Design Builder: Southern California Edison
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HISTORICAL CONTEXT Formative Years of the SCE The SCE is comprised of electrical infrastructure built by SCE and its predecessor companies obtained through a series of mergers and acquisitions in the company’s history from 1886 forward. SCE traces its origins back to July 4, 1886. On that day, the partnership of Holt and Knupp, which later became the Visalia Electric Light and Gas Company, first used a steam engine fueled by cord wood to power arc lights during Visalia’s evening 4th of July celebrations. Later that same year, the Santa Barbara Electric Light Company was formed and quickly installed outdoor arc lights to illuminate the balmy resort evenings in downtown Santa Barbara. Both the Visalia and Santa Barbara companies would later be merged into SCE in the early 1900s.2 In 1887 the first commercial hydroelectric plant in the west was built at the community of Highgrove near the city of Riverside. Built by the Riverside Water Company, the plant took advantage of a 50-‐foot water drop in an irrigation canal to turn three waterwheels and direct current dynamos. The electricity was transmitted a very short distance to illuminate 30 arc lights in Riverside and Colton. In 1888, the Riverside Water Company was incorporated as the San Bernardino Electric Company and was later acquired by SCE in the early 1900s.3 That same year the Pasadena Electric Light and Power Company installed steam-‐driven current generators to power arc lights for street lighting in Pasadena. Likewise, in 1890, the Ventura Land and Power Company installed hydroelectric generation to power arc lights in downtown Ventura, thereby catching up with their neighbors in Santa Barbara further up the coast.4 In 1891, businessman Henry Sinclair and Dr. Cyrus G. Baldwin, the first president of Pomona College, co-‐founded the San Antonio Light and Power Company with the intention to provide electric street lighting to the city of Pomona. The technical challenge they faced was that direct current power could not be practically transmitted long distances. Baldwin hired A.W. Decker, an engineer familiar with the cutting edge of advances being made with alternating current. Decker installed the first single-‐phase alternating current hydroelectric generator in San Antonio Canyon above Claremont. In late 1892, power was transmitted 14-‐miles to Pomona and, one month later, 29-‐miles to San Bernardino. The age of long-‐distance transmission had begun, thereby opening access to remote hydroelectric resources. Most history texts consider the Niagara Falls to Buffalo, New York transmission line as the first long-‐distance line in the nation built in 1896, but the reality is that the San Antonio Light and Power Company (with A.W. Decker) did it four years earlier in San Antonio Canyon. A bronze plaque marks the spot on Mt. Baldy Road.5 In 1892 Henry Sinclair formed the Redlands Electric Light and Power Company to provide power to the Union Ice Company for the new electric motors in its ice-‐making facility in Mentone. The closest hydroelectric resource was eight-‐miles away at Mill Creek. This long distance would require a high-‐voltage alternating current. Decker recommended that a new three-‐phase alternating current generator be installed. The new three-‐phase system enabled electric motors to start and stop independently of the generator and delivered a smoother power torque to the rotating equipment. The Mill Creek plant was the first commercial power plant in the United States to use three-‐phase alternating current. Today, the three-‐phase power generation remains the standard for power generation worldwide.6 In 1894 the Mill Creek plant powered electric pumps installed to irrigate many of the orange groves in Redlands. This was the earliest recorded use of electric pumps for irrigation purposes.7 Although the original equipment was upgraded in 1934, the Mill Creek plant remains in operation today as the oldest active poly-‐phase power plant in the United States.
2 Edison International, “Lighting Up the Town of Visalia California – 1886,” A Look Back: Our History http://www.edison.com/home/about-‐us/our-‐history.html#27764, accessed October 13, 2014. 3Ibid., “Hydroelectric Power near Riverside, Calif. – 1887.” 4 Ibid., “Steam-‐powered Street Lights in Pasadena, Calif. – 1888.” 5 Ibid., “Electric Streetlights for the City of Pomona – 1981.” 6 Ibid., “Introducing Three-‐phase Alternating Current Generation – 1892.” 7 Ibid., “Irrigating Orange Groves with the Help of Electric Pumps – 1894.”
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In 1895, the Kaweah Power and Water Company was formed to survey the potential development of hydroelectric facilities on the Kaweah River above Visalia and Tulare County. The Kaweah Hydro Plant began operating in 1899 and its operations were folded into the larger Mount Whitney Power Company. In 1909 the Mount Whitney Power Company was renamed as the Mount Whitney Power and Electric Company, and in 1920 was acquired by SCE.8 Based in the central valley, the Mt. Whitney Power Company focused primarily on rural customers with Visalia being the largest town on its system. The company covered most of Tulare County and portions of the neighboring Kings and Kern Counties, and built two additional hydroelectric plants on the Kaweah River; Plant Two in 1905 and Plant Three in 1913. The company purchased the Tule River hydroelectric plant in 1909 from the Globe Light and Power Company, enlarged its existing Visalia Steam Plant in 1914 and acquired a smaller plant at Tulare in 1915 from the Tulare County Power Company. Henry Huntington, of the Pacific Light and Power Company, purchased controlling interest of the Mount Whitney Power and Electric Company in June 1916.9 West Side Lighting Company and the Edison Electric Company In 1896, in Los Angeles, California, a syndicate of businessmen formed the West Side Lighting Company in response to the city’s increased need for electricity. The West Side Lighting Company sought to utilize the “Edison three-‐wire” conduit technology invented years earlier by Thomas Edison. They soon discovered, however, that use of the Edison technology was prohibited due to a special contract negotiated between a speculative and inactive company established in 1884 under the name Los Angeles Edison Electric Company and Thomas Edison’s own General Electric Company. The contract provided the Los Angeles Edison Electric Company with exclusive Southern California rights to the three-‐wire technology. In that same year, Henry Sinclair of the Redlands Electric Light and Power Company teamed up with Henry Fisher, a prominent Redlands resident, to form the Southern California Power Company to pursue the construction of a new hydroelectric facility on the Santa Ana River. In 1897, West Side Lighting Company President George H. Barker met with General Electric officials in San Francisco to negotiate for use of the Edison technology in the Los Angeles area and to discuss a potential merger between the West Side Lighting Company and General Electric. The new Edison Electric Company of Los Angeles (EEC) was incorporated on December 1, 1897, and with George Barker as the company head, the new company took over all the properties and franchises of the West Side Lighting Company and secured the valuable equipment licenses of the inactive Los Angeles Edison Electric Company. Thirsty for more power supplies for downtown Los Angeles, the EEC purchased the Southern California Power Company in 1898 and constructed the Santa Ana River No. 1 to Los Angeles Transmission Line, an 83-‐mile high-‐voltage transmission line to bring the power into downtown Los Angeles. At the time, this was by far the longest and highest voltage transmission line built anywhere in the country. Edison engineer Orville Ensign designed “the Redlands” insulator for use on the line. This innovative insulator design was rapidly adopted throughout the West.10 In the following years, EEC merged with and acquired additional electric lighting and power companies and soon expanded into communities outside of Los Angeles as far north as Santa Barbara and as far east as Redlands. The West Side Lighting Company and the EEC, with the Pacific Light and Power Company, are among the most important of SCE’s ancestral companies. At the turn-‐of-‐the-‐century, the EEC, alongside its primary competitors, Pacific Light and Power Company, the San Joaquin Power & Light Company, and Pacific Gas & Electric Company, served as the pioneering commercial entities for electrical generation and distribution in California. In California, at the inception of electrical transmission technology, power was distributed via wood poles and later iron poles, but was limited to short spans carrying a low voltage. The development of hydroelectric power at the end of the 19th century set precedent for satisfying the demands of commercial electrical needs of the 20th century, and led to the
8 Ibid., “Developing Hydroelectric Facilities on the Kaweah River – 1895.” 9 William A. Myers, Iron Men and Copper Wires: A Centennial History of the Southern California Edison Company (Glendale: Trans-‐Anglo Books, 1983), 92-‐99. 10 Edison International, “Hydroelectric Power & the Santa Ana River – 1898.”
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installation of electrical transmission lines spanning great distances from generating facilities at California’s river banks, through mountain ranges and deserts, before terminating within the urbanizing communities of southern California. Leading the company in this period of innovation and expansion was John Barnes Miller. He had joined the West Side Lighting Company as its General Manager in 1897. Miller coined the company motto that survives to this day: “Good Service, Square Dealing, and Courteous Treatment.” Known as the “Great Amalgamator” he recognized that lower costs could be achieved by expanding the scale of the company through mergers and acquisitions. Miller served as President of the EEC (and later SCE) for 31 years, presiding over the most expansive period in its history. He died in 1932. To date John Barnes Miller has been the longest serving chief executive officer of SCE.11 In 1907 EEC began operations at the Kern River #1 Powerhouse, a 75,000-‐volt facility on the banks of the Kern River north of Bakersfield, California. Five years earlier, in 1902, EEC Chief Hydraulic Engineer, F. C. Finkle surveyed the remote area of Kern Canyon with a vision of a great hydroelectric power plant supplying the electrical needs of the rapidly growing region of Los Angeles. Two years after the initial survey, EEC Vice President Henry Sinclair chose a suitable location along the Kern River – what was reckoned to become the location of Kern River Powerhouse No. 1. Situated approximately 14-‐miles upstream from the mouth of Kern River, the EEC Kern River Powerhouse No.1 was set for service in early 1907.12 The Powerhouse served as the generating facility for the EEC’s Kern River to Los Angeles Transmission Line, a 117-‐mile span supported by 1,140 galvanized steel transmission towers that were modeled after windmill frames, and supplied by the Wind Engine and Pump Company of Batavia, Illinois. The towers are generally regarded as one of the first steel lattice transmission tower types in the United States. The Kern River to Los Angeles Transmission Line conveyed 60,000-‐volts over its 117-‐mile span, and terminated at EEC’s pre-‐existing Steam & Transformer Plant No. 3 in Los Angeles, where the electricity was then distributed into Los Angeles via EEC’s wood pole distribution system.13 The Kern River to Los Angeles Transmission Line was cited in an August 10, 1907 Electrical World article as one of the longest transmission lines operating on the North American continent. With its steel towers and specially designed insulators intended for a voltage capacity of 75kV, the Kern River to Los Angeles Transmission Line with its associated Powerhouse “typified the latest modern practice in hydroelectric power plant design.” 14 At the start of operation, the Kern River Hydroelectric Project was identified as the “most permanent and costly hydraulic waterway in the country.15 SCE Reincorporation, Mergers, Acquisitions, Expansion, and Innovation By 1909 the EEC provided electricity to over 600,000 people throughout five counties. To reflect this expanded presence, the company was reincorporated as the Southern California Edison Company (SCE). In the first two decades of the Twentieth Century SCE continued to expand throughout the growing southern California region. The company initiated construction of its Long Beach Steam Plant in 1910 and implemented a new system of 66kV steel tower transmission lines to replace its previous network of 33kV wood pole lines. In 1916 SCE merged with Henry Huntington’s Pacific Light & Power Corporation (PLPC). The merger was viewed as beneficial to both parties. Huntington received about $12 million in Edison stock and SCE gained absolute control over all former PLPC holdings and future expansion efforts, including the Borel Powerhouse and associated Borel to Los Angeles Transmission Line, and the Big Creek Hydroelectric System. After the successful merger between SCE and PLPC, the company focused its labors at expanding the Big Creek Hydroelectric System, initially in-‐service in 1913 at a level of 150kV, and upgraded to 220kV in 1923. By 1916, the year of the PLPC and SCE merger, 56 Southern California communities were lit by SCE
11 Ibid., “Our motto: “Good Service, Square Dealing, and Courteous Treatment” – 1901.” 12 Frederick Hall Fowler, Hydroelectric Power Systems of California and Their Extension into Oregon and Nevada, Water-‐supply paper, issue 493, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1923), 632-‐638. 13 “Kern River No. 1 Power Plant of Edison Electric Co., Los Angeles,” Electrical World, vol. 50, August 10, 1907, 277-‐281. 14 Ibid., 277. 15 Ibid.
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infrastructure. Of those 56 communities serviced, 22 were initially serviced by infrastructure installed in the EEC-‐period (1897-‐1909) and 34 were serviced by SCE-‐period (1910-‐1916) infrastructure. By 1920, an additional 153 communities were serviced by SCE resulting from the 1917 merger with Huntington’s PLPC and the 1920 acquisition of the Mount Whitney Power and Electric Company.16 Into the late 1920s SCE continued to develop its Big Creek Hydroelectric System through the creation of dams and reservoirs, building of powerhouses, rail lines, and tunnels, as well as support camps replete with food and housing for workers, recreation and entertainment offerings, medical facilities, and administrative offices. Upgrades were completed at the existing East and West Transmission Lines, and additional transmission lines were installed to convey electricity from Big Creek to Los Angeles. By 1929, when the initial Big Creek Hydroelectric system was completed, its capacity consistently generated more electrical power than any other systems in place at the time. The Big Creek system boasted many innovative engineering features, including the longest water tunnel in the world, the 243-‐mile Big Creek East and West 150 / 220kV Transmission Lines, the 224-‐mile Vincent 220kV Transmission Line, with all three lines spanning between the Big Creek generating facilities on the upper San Joaquin River and the Gould Substation in Los Angeles, the longest electrical transmission lines in the world at that time. Developing in a parallel path to these early PLPC and SCE projects were the hydroelectric facilities at Bishop Creek. Built by a syndicate of investors under multiple successor corporations, including the Nevada Power, Mining and Milling Company (incorporated in 1904), the Nevada-‐California Power Company (incorporated in 1907), the Southern Sierras Power Company (incorporated in 1911), and the Nevada-‐California Electric Corporation (incorporated in 1914), the Bishop Creek Hydroelectric System included multiple powerhouses, each with an associated residential complex for operators and maintenance crews, and a control station which served as the switching point for the collection and distribution of electricity from the system. In 1941 the Nevada-‐California Power Company was renamed as the California Electric Power Company. Several early long-‐distance transmission records originated from Bishop Creek. In 1905 a high-‐voltage 118-‐mile power line was installed between Bishop Creek, Tonopah, Nevada and Goldfield, Nevada. In 1905, two 55,000 volts (55kV) a high-‐voltage wood pole lines were installed 118-‐miles power line was installed between Bishop Creek and , Tonopah, Nevada and Goldfield, Nevada. . In 1912, a double circuit 115,000 volts (115kV) transmission line was constructed on double circuit lattice steel towers from Control Substation on Bishop Creek to the San Bernardino Substation (renamed Caletric) in San Bernardino, California for a total span of 239-‐miles. The line was called the "Tower Line" because of the new “off the shelf” towers being used from the Milliken Brothers of New York, which had become the norm, as opposed to the wooden or metal poles, pole towers, or windmill poles as found in early lines like the Kern-‐Los Angeles 60kV Transmission Line (built in 1907). In 1912 the Tower line was built between Bishop Creek and San Bernardino, California for a total span of 239-‐miles17 On April 26, 1930 SCE entered into a contract with the United States Interior Department to generate electricity for itself and other investor-‐owned electric utility companies, and to distribute that power to its southern California service territory. The source of power was intended for construction: the Hoover Dam, and SCE’s contract, along with similar contracts in place between the United States government, the City of Los Angeles, and the Southern Sierra Power Company (SSPC), helped to guarantee the amortization of the project expenses over a 50-‐year period.18 The SSPC Boulder Dam to San Bernardino transmission line was energized in 1931 to initially convey power to the dam for construction purposes, and then was later reversed to carry electricity to San Bernardino when the dam was completed and in operation.
16 Myers, 253-‐261. 17 Dorothea Theodoratus, Clinton M. Blount, Valerie H. Diamond, Stephen G. Helmich, and Robert A. Hicks / Theodoratus Cultural Research, Inc., Evaluation of the Historic Resources of the Bishop Creek Hydroelectric System (July 1988), 9. 18 Myers, 184.
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Into the late 1940s, in the post-‐WWII period, additional SCE projects were undertaken at Big Creek to make improvements to existing powerhouses including the addition of new generators, and construction of new dams and powerhouses. This later phase of construction continued through the 1960s. The modern-‐period upgrade campaign at Big Creek was instrumental in responding to the increased electricity needs of southern California resultant from post-‐war suburban expansion. In 1964 the California Electric Power Company and its holdings were acquired by SCE, including the Bishop Creek Hydroelectric System and its associated transmission lines. Today SCE maintains an electrical infrastructure comprised of individually constructed substations, transmission lines, and other electrical generation and distribution equipment supporting fourteen million customers over an approximate 50,000 square-‐mile service territory. The SCE territory covers all or portions of Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Madera, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Tulare, and Ventura Counties. Additionally, SCE owns facilities in eastern Arizona and Nevada that transmit electricity to southern California. SCE Substations Early SCE substations (and other facilities such as hydroelectric plants, steam plants, and ice houses), developed in the early service-‐area expansion period (circa 1909 through the 1930s), often incorporated a historicist architectural aesthetic into the substation complex by housing the utilitarian activities and engineering equipment inside an ornately decorated building modeled after the popular architectural style of the time. Early SCE substations were developed in the Classical Revival, Mission Revival, Spanish Revival, and Stripped Classical styles. These early substation buildings were typically constructed as stand-‐alone structures throughout the SCE service territory. The substation properties were expanded as necessary based on customer demand, usually in the form of additional buildings or structures and the requisite electrical engineering equipment including transformers and switches. In some instances the company designed substation buildings to resemble housing to complement the surrounding residential neighborhood. Known examples include the Spanish Revival style Ramona Substation built in 1926 in Alhambra, and the Mediterranean Revival style Fairfax Substation built in 1930 in Fairfax.19 Prior to 1950, SCE and its predecessor companies had installed approximately 150 substation facilities within its service territory. In 1950 SCE acquired or put-‐in-‐service approximately 402 additional substation facilities. Today there are at least 1,300 substations facilities within the SCE portfolio. In the post WWII-‐period, with the construction of bulk power stations SCE no longer incorporated stylistic elements or a clear architectural aesthetic into its substation properties. The company promoted a more efficient program with less architectural intervention at the utilitarian electrical engineering complexes. In most instances, monumental substation buildings were no longer erected; rather, the properties were improved with just the basic electrical engineering structures including transformer racks, cable trenches, and water towers. The structures built to house traditional uses including switching room, oil house, and other functions, were of utilitarian design constructed of corrugated aluminum or transite siding, and void of stylistic details and ornamentation. Historic-‐era SCE substation can be categorized into six types, depending on the type of building that they resemble: Civic, Commercial, Monumental, Religious, Residential, and Atypical. Civic type buildings are the most numerous type. These substations are small, one-‐story Classical Revival brick buildings that resemble libraries or post offices. There are four subtypes, of which three subtypes resemble libraries and the fourth resembles post offices. Commercial type buildings are the most diverse and are in Period Revival architectural styles that resemble buildings for business. There are three subtypes: bank, office, and retail.
19 Southern California Edison, Confidential Substation Database. Southern California Edison, Southern California Edison Photographs and Negatives, http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/ p16003coll2, Huntington Digital Library.
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Monumental type buildings do not resemble a particular building, but convey a substantial presence and formal appearance through massing and scale. These substations are usually reinforced concrete, more than one story, and do not have much detail. There are three subtypes: block, box, and multi-‐part. Religious type substations are the rarest and do not have subtypes. These substations resemble Spanish Colonial Revival churches. The Residential type resembles houses or apartment buildings. There are three subtypes: apartment, bungalow, and cottage. They are mostly in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. The bungalow and cottage subtypes are all one-‐story. The Atypical type is defined as substations that would not be architecturally significant, but are historically significant. The three subtypes of Monumental Type substations differ in their massing. The block subtype buildings were designed by engineering firm Stone and Webster as tall concrete block buildings. These buildings are over three stories and have bays of windows and overhangs. The box subtype are the most numerous subtype. These buildings have either cornice or recessed panels to make these rectangular-‐plan buildings monumental. The multi-‐part subtype displays massing divided into two to three parts. These buildings have modernized Classical Revival or Stripped Classical features, such as pediments and piers. Block Subtype There are two substations of this subtype: Eagle Rock and Magunden. These two buildings were constructed as part of the Big Creek Hydroelectric System. Eagle Rock Substation The city of Eagle Rock was incorporated in 1911.20 From 1911-‐1916, the population tripled from about 600 to 1,850 people.21 At this time, several factors were responsible for its growth. The most important was the construction of the “W” trolley line from downtown Los Angeles to Eagle Rock Park in 1911.22 Another factor was the opening of the Colorado Street Bridge over the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena. The bridge was a part of a state highway that connected Eagle Rock to the San Gabriel Valley and cut the commute time between the points from a full day to a few minutes. It also gave rise to Colorado Street becoming a main street in Eagle Rock and the intersection of Colorado Street and Eagle Rock Boulevard became the commercial center of town.23 In 1914-‐1917, several community buildings were constructed. Developer Godfrey Edwards constructed the Women's Twentieth Century Clubhouse in 1914 and the Eagle Park School in 1917.24 The town received a Carnegie grant that they used to build a library in 1915.25 In 1922, Eagle Rock built its City Hall before Los Angeles annexed it in 1923.26 The Pacific Light and Power Corporation (PLPC) was established to supply electricity to the trolley lines that connected downtown Los Angeles to its suburban communities and surrounding cities. The trolley lines in turn helped to drive the growth of Los Angeles. Streetcar magnate Henry E. Huntington started his empire in Southern California in 1898 when his syndicate bought the Los Angeles Railway and then in 1902 when he incorporated the Pacific Electric Railway.27 He oversaw the development of the Red Car line of the Pacific Electric and the Yellow Car line of the Los Angeles Railway. Not only did he earn money through the railway, he was also able to help determine the location of future stops on the line and then profit from selling real
20 Eric H. Warren and Frank E. Parrello, Pioneers of Eagle Rock (The History Press, Charleston, South Carolina: 2014) 106.
21 Ibid., 122. 22 Ibid., 112. 23 Ibid. 24 Ibid., 122. 25 Ibid., 116. 26 Ibid., 130. 27 William B. Friedricks, Henry E. Huntington and the Creation of Southern California (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1992), 48.
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estate near the new destinations of the railway.28 Huntington organized the PLPC with partners William G. Kerchkoff, Kaspare Cohn, and Henry W. O'Melveny to provide electricity to his Los Angeles and Pacific Electric Railway and then sell the excess power.29 The company absorbed the San Gabriel Electric Company, the Kern Power Company, and the Los Angeles Electric Company. Its holdings included the Azusa water power plant, the San Antonio water power plant, and the Los Angeles steam plant.30 In 1910, Huntington split the Los Angeles and Pacific Electric Railway and retained the Los Angeles Railway lines. He reorganized the Los Angeles Railway and planned to improve and expand it. He needed to guarantee affordable electric power for his streetcars.31 The same year, he had just expanded the steam plant at Redondo Beach three years after it was first built to keep up with the increasing demand for electricity.32 However, he realized that hydroelectric power was much cheaper than steam-‐generated power. The cost of a kilowatt-‐hour at the Redondo Beach steam plant was about four cents, while the same amount of power through hydroelectric means would only be ten percent of one cent. Huntington already had a plan for hydroelectric power in mind, but did not have the ability to build the system until 1910. Eight years earlier, in 1902, hydroelectric power pioneer and engineer John S. Eastwood envisioned the possibility of hydroelectric power in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of East Fresno County. Huntington hired Eastwood to develop the idea. Eastwood proposed his design for the Big Creek hydroelectric system in 1905. In 1910, Huntington incorporated a new PLPC that absorbed his old company and bought the water rights to Big Creek from Eastwood's Mammoth Power Company. Stone and Webster, a Boston-‐based engineering firm, built the project, including the subject Eagle Rock Substation.33 The large supply of power from the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project allowed the PLPC to expand its distribution system to Glendora, San Fernando, Compton, and Huntington Beach. The PLPC also expanded its distribution system through acquisitions north of Los Angeles. In 1914, the PLPC purchased control of the Ventura County Power Company and in 1916, a controlling interest in the Mt. Whitney Power and Electric Company of the southern San Joaquin Valley.34 In 1917, PLPC merged with Southern California Edison, the latter acquiring all the holdings of PLPC including the subject Eagle Rock Substation property.35 The Eagle Rock Substation, was the southern terminus of the Big Creek Hydroelectric System, initially in-‐service in 1913 as the largest privately owned hydroelectric project west of the Mississippi.36 A 241-‐mile, 150,000-‐volt transmission line, the longest and highest-‐voltage transmission line of its time, connected the Eagle Rock Substation to Powerhouse #1 and #2 in Big Creek. The substation was first brought on-‐line on November 8, 1913 after the Redondo Beach Steam Plant lost power.37 The loss of power was during the morning rush hour to work, so it was important to restore power quickly in order to restore power to the Los Angeles Railway. After forty-‐five minutes without power from the Redondo Beach Steam Plant, Big Creek
28 Ibid., 100. 29 Water and Power Associates, “First Electricity in Los Angeles,” Mulholland-‐Scattergood Virtual Museum, http://waterandpower.org/museum/First%20Electricity%20in%20Los%20Angeles.html, Accessed September 15, 2014. Friedricks, 7 and 62. 30 Friedricks, 62. 31 Ibid., 99. 32 Sam Gnerre, “Redondo Beach's Power Plants,” Daily Breeze Blog, http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history/2011/10/05/redondo-‐beachs-‐power-‐plant/, Accessed September 15, 2014. 33 Friedricks, 111-‐112. 34 Ibid., 127. 35 Ibid., 132. 36 Eagle Rock Valley Historical Society, Newsletter, Winter 2014, 4. 37 Southern California Edison, “Bringing Big Creek to Life,” Inside Edison, November 2013, 10-‐12.
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was turned on to transmit 20,000 horsepower at around 8:38 A.M.38 The Big Creek Hydroelectric System allowed power to be delivered at different points, so that accidents, fires, or floods would not interfere with the entire system. A 60,000-‐ volt transmission line connected the Eagle Rock substation with the Redondo Beach steam plant.39 In 1923, the Big Creek Hydroelectric system increased its lines to 220,000 volts and new transformers had to be transported to the Eagle Rock substation site on a branch line of the Los Angeles Railway.40 The Eagle Rock Substation and the power it brought into Los Angeles and the surrounding communities (including Eagle Rock) was pivotal to meeting the electricity needs of Los Angeles for years to come. This was shown when the substation lost power almost ten years after it opened. On Monday, January 8, 1923, the short-‐circuiting of a high-‐tension wire resulted in an explosion of a lightning arrester, which formed and ignited gas in the upper stories of the substation building and started a fire fed by the oil in the arresters. The resulting power outage cut electricity to more than 200 towns in Southern California and stopped more than half of the Yellow Car service in Los Angeles.41 The power from Big Creek was the major source of electricity for the company into the 1950s.42 Magunden Substation The Pacific Light and Power Company (PLPC) (subsequently Southern California Edison) established the Magunden Substation in 1914 as a transmission component of the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project, located approximately 130 miles north in mountainous eastern Fresno County. The station is located along the original long-‐distance transmission lines from the project, historically known as the Big Creek East and West Transmission Lines, which extend from Big Creek to Los Angeles in their entirety. In addition, the station is sited on the Vincent Transmission Line, which was developed in 1925 from Big Creek to Los Angeles, and a modern line, the Omar Transmission Line, which extends from the Omar Substation near Oildale. The substation has continued to serve as a critical component of SCE’s transmission infrastructure, and continues to transmit electricity from the Big Creek Project.43 Stone and Webster Construction Company constructed Magunden Substation in 1913-‐1914, under contract to PLPC. Stone and Webster Construction Company also constructed the entirety of the original Big Creek Project, including the powerhouses, dams, transportation networks, and related support facilities. The building went into operation in 1914. Initially the substation served only the 150 kV Big Creek East and West Transmission Lines, which extended 240 miles from Big Creek to the Eagle Rock Substation. In its industrial design characterized by modest classical revival allusions, the building was reminiscent of other Big Creek construction, most notably Powerhouse Nos. 1, 2, and 8.44 The Magunden Substation was the first of several substations developed along the system’s transmission lines, which were originally 150 kV and upgraded to 220kV in the 1920s. In their entirety, the lines extended from the hydroelectric project to distribution facilities in Los Angeles and its surrounding urban areas, passing through Magunden as they extended south from the powerhouses of Big Creek. In addition to relaying power, the facility came to operate as a switching station in the 1920s, consolidating electricity generated at other companies and incorporating it into the electrical grid.45
38 “Big Creek Power Put to Work in This City,” Los Angeles Times, November 9, 1913. 39 Max Loewenthal, “Splendid Advance of Electrical Industry,” Los Angeles Times, January 17, 1915. 40 Myers, 119. 41 “Blast Starts Power Blaze: Street Car Service in Los Angeles Curtailed,” Los Angeles Times, January 10,
1923. 42 Myers, 111. 43 Garret Root and Polly Allen of Cardno, DPR 523 forms for Magunden Substation, May 2015, 3. 44 Ibid., 4 and 5. 45 Ibid., 4.
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By the late 1910s, the hydroelectric market was becoming increasingly complex, with a number of rival companies across the Sierra and accessing urban markets through the Central Valley. In addition to PLPC and subsequently SCE, PG&E, Mount Whitney Power and Electric Company, and San Joaquin Light and Power were constructing their own hydroelectric facilities and transmission infrastructure. The state’s acting utility regulatory body—the California State Railroad Commission—mandated that companies integrate transmission systems to promote greater statewide utility efficiency. Because of Magunden’s central location and size it became an early switching station for multiple companies, serving as a critical nexus between distinct companies and projects. Because SCE operated using 50-‐cycle technology, which differed from the majority of the utility which operated at 60-‐cycles, Magunden contained large frequency changers that altered cycles so electricity could be cycled up or down based upon varying company’s needs. By the late 1910s, in addition to Big Creek’s lines, Magunden transferred energy from SCE’s Kern River No. 1 as well as lines of Mount Whitney Power and Electric Company and San Joaquin Light and Power Company. These additional lines changed the substation’s role from simply facilitating the transfer of electricity from Big Creek to Eagle Rock to that of a switching station within the larger energy grid.46 In the early 1920s, SCE began upgrading the original East and West Transmission Lines from 150 to 220 kV, in response to ever escalating consumer demands. To accommodate the higher voltages coming through Magunden, SCE installed larger equipment and a large transmission yard constructed outside the confines of the main building, which originally housed the transmission equipment. This functional change rerouted the Big Creek East and West lines to the transmission yard located on the south side of the building. Additionally, in 1928 SCE completed a third 220 kV Big Creek transmission line, the Vincent Transmission Line, which extended from Big Creek’s Powerhouse No. 3 to Gould Substation near Los Angeles. This addition connected through the east side of the transmission rack and further solidified Magunden’s central role as a Big Creek transmission facility.47 Box Subtype There are three substations within this subtype: Chino, Colton, and Newmark. These three properties were put in-‐service between 1912 and 1913. Chino Substation Located in the southwestern portion of San Bernardino County, the City of Chino was incorporated on February 28, 1910 with a population of approximately 1,400 as an agricultural and farming center.48 Prior to incorporation, land speculation of the Chino area occurred starting in 1887 when the one-‐mile Chino town site was platted with surrounding 10-‐acre tracts. By 1895, the Southern Pacific Railroad had been established and was linked with the Chino Valley Railroad at Chino, allowing for town growth and the advancement in manufacturing and shipment of agricultural goods.49 The town’s expansion was reflected in new services and amenities including a general store with a mail service, a Wells Fargo Office, a regular circulating newspaper, a hotel and a rail service. The Chino Beet Sugar Factory was established in 1890 and provided employment and an economic base for a large number of early settlers. The Central School was erected in 1894. The town further expanded in 1898 when the Southern Pacific purchased rights to a narrow gauge road connecting Chino to Pomona.50 By 1910, the City’s incorporation year, Chino’s population was recorded at 1,444
46 Ibid., 6. 47 Ibid. 48 City of Chino General Plan. 49 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Chino (San Bernardino Co.). Key Sheets c. 1895, 1897, 1907, 1912, 1925, 1932. 50 Brown, John Jr. and James Boyd. History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. Volume 1. The Lewis Publishing Company: Chicago, IL. 1922. Chapter XIX: Chino, Pages 238-‐240.
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residents. Soon thereafter the Southern California Edison Company initiated construction of a substation that would supply electricity to the residents of Chino.51 The substation is sited immediately south of Chino proper, approximately 1.5 miles south of the historic Chino town site. But for a tankhouse erected behind the building (not extant), the Substation Building was the only building erected at the property and soley supported electrical transmissions from 1921 through circa 1938 when a second phase of construction and expansion occurred at the facility. The electricity generated by and distributed through the Chino Substation Building lit the streets, homes, and businesses of Chino and directly helped to support Chino’s early development as a community in Southern California’s Inland Empire. Colton Substation The railroads heavily influenced the founding and development of Colton, founded in 1875 as a town along the transcontinental railroad line of the Southern Pacific. The town site was laid out in grid with additional lots in an area identified as South Colton, which came to be occupied by railroad workers, and was located south of the railroad tracks in the vicinity of Interstate 10.52 The major industries in Colton were the railroads and citrus agriculture. In 1876, the Southern Pacific completed its line into Los Angeles and in 1885, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (ATSFR) did the same. The two railroads engaged in a price war that drove down the ticket price for a transcontinental trip and led to a mass immigration into Southern California. This population increase resulted in a land boom in San Bernardino County.53 By 1896, Colton was crossed north-‐south and east-‐west by the Southern Pacific tracks. The California Southern Railroad, a subsidiary of the ATSFR, maintained a line north-‐south, the San Bernardino to San Diego line, and then its east-‐west line crossed north of Colton in San Bernardino.54 The citrus processing industry was dependent on the local railroads. From 1882 to 1936, a district of citrus processing plants developed around 6th Street downtown near the fruit-‐growing region of Colton and adjacent to the California Southern tracks.55 Colton received a supply of electricity early on in the town’s settlement and from different utilities due to its connection to the railroad industry. Colton was incorporated in 1887 and was supplied electricity in 1899 by the EEC (predecessor of the SCE). Before the EEC arrived in Colton, the Highgrove plant built by Charles R. Lloyd by 1888 supplied electricity through brush-‐type arc lighting in Colton.56 In 1896, a new 10,000-‐volt transmission line connected to the Mill Creek plant was strung from Redlands to Colton and Riverside to power agricultural pumping and to supply municipal needs.57 The City of Colton established its municipal electrical system in 1900 for street lighting by buying power from the EEC and after 1900 bought portions of the electric system to operate it directly.58 In 1899, the city of Colton was connected to the Santa Ana River Hydroelectric System. Powerhouses built along the Santa Ana River in the San Bernardino National Forest supplied power to the system.59 The
51 City of Chino Website. Did You Know: Historical Facts. www.cityofchino.org/index.aspx?page=558. Accessed June 7, 2010. 52 City of Colton, “History of Colton,” Our Community, http://www.ci.colton.ca.us/index.aspx?nid=98, Accessed September 30, 1914. 53 Mark T. Swanson (historian) and David DeVries (photographer), Historic American Engineering Record, CA-‐130: Santa Ana River Hydroelectric System, San Bernardino County, California, Report by Greenwood & Associates for the Army Corps of Engineers, 1992, 39. 54 U.S. Geological Survey, San Bernardino Quadrangle, California, 1:62,500, 15 Minute Series (Washington D.C.: USGS, 1896). 55 The Lightfoot Planning Group and Affinis, Colton Cultural Resources Preservation Element, 2000, 10. 56 Swanson, 40. 57 Ibid., 51. 58 Myers, 142 and 255. 59 Swanson, 5.
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companies that constructed the Santa Ana River Hydroelectric System eventually merged into SCE. The Southern California Power Company that initiated construction on Santa Ana River Powerhouse No. 1 merged in 1902 and the Mentone Power Company that constructed Powerhouse No. 3 merged in 1917.60 In 1905, the line between Powerhouse No. 1 and Colton was increased to 33,000-‐volt current and also connected to the Santa Ana River Powerhouse No. 2.61 Constructed in 1912, the Colton Substation served as the point of principal load for the eastern part of the SCE system.62 It was connected to Kern River Powerhouse No. 1 by an approximately 175-‐mile transmission line.63 The Colton Substation controlled the voltage from Los Angeles, the Santa Ana River, and Mill Creek and acted as a step-‐down transmission substation by stepping down voltage it received from two sources, the 66,000 voltage current from Los Angeles switching station and the 33,000 voltage current from the Santa Ana Powerhouses. Power left the substation in five circuits of 10,000 volts and two circuits of 33,000 volts.64 Electric companies started to exchange hydroelectric reserve power between each other to alleviate wartime fuel oil shortages in 1918. The Colton Substation was a major interconnection point from the SCE to the Southern Sierras Power Company. Interconnection allowed utility companies to minimize service interruptions during emergencies. Only a small amount could be exchanged due to the different frequencies between the SCE that operated at 50 cycles and Southern Sierras Power Company that operated at 60 cycles. A frequency changer would convert the exchanging electricity between the two systems.65 Besides Colton, there was one frequency changer each at the Capistrano and Magunden substations.66 During World War II, Colton was part of a wider utility interconnection. In 1942, SCE and other utilities in California, Southern Nevada, and Arizona formed the Pacific Southwest Power Pool, a large interconnected system suggested by the Power Branch of the War Production Board. Power reserves from some utilities supplied other utilities that had a lack of power.67 The Pacific Southwest Power Pool enabled utilities to meet the surge of wartime energy demand. Colton served as an frequency changer and interconnection point until SCE increased its entire system to 60 cycles in 1948.68 The Colton Substation was a regional hub in the SCE transmission system and by 1927 a communication and dispatcher's building was built adjacent to the substation building. The dispatcher's diagram board showed that Colton connected nearby to the Colton City electrical system and to the Colton Concrete Works substation, north to Lytle Creek, west to Claremont, southwest to Pedley, and south to Highgrove.69 Newmark Substation The Newmark Substation was constructed in 1912-‐1913 in Monterey Park, California. Formal development of the area began in 1906 when Ramona Acres, Monterey Park’s first subdivision was platted in the vicinity of present-‐day Garvey Avenue and Garfield Avenue, approximately 1.2-‐miles north of the Newmark Substation property. Electricity was initially provided to the area in 1913 via the Newmark Substation.70 Monterey Park
60 Ibid., 54. 61 Ibid., 95. 62 J.W. Andree, “Operating Interconnected Hydro Plants for Best System Economy,” in Electrical World 79 (New York: McGraw Hill Company, Inc.), 1922, 934. 63 G.E. Armstrong, “Relay Protective Systems,” Journal of Electricity 42, no.8 (April 15, 1919), 351. 64 Swanson, 128. 65 Myers, 218-‐219. 66 J.W. Andree, “Synchronous Condensers in High-‐Tension System,” Electrical World 74, no. 11 (September 1919), 567. 67 Myers, 196. 68 Ibid., 219. 69 Bishop, Photo SEC-‐02-‐15258. Accessed October 16, 2014. 70 Myers, 258.
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remained unincorporated until 1916 when the nearby cities of Pasadena, South Pasadena, and Alhambra put forth a proposal to establish a sewage treatment facility. To defeat the proposal, in May 1916 area residents elected to incorporate and named the community Monterey Park after Monterey Hills, a place name included in government maps of the area. The municipality’s new Board of Directors passed an ordinance prohibiting sewage plants within city boundaries.71 In 1920 land comprising the southern portion of Monterey Park was annexed to form the City of Montebello. Initially platted as the town of Newmark, after Harris Newmark, one of the early land syndicate owners responsible for the speculative land plat recorded in 1899, Montebello’s history and name is based on agriculture, climate, and an appreciation of the area’s natural open space, with the city’s Italian-‐language name translating to “beautiful hill.” The original town site, located at the south edge of Monterey Park, was centered on an approximate 40-‐acre land area divided into a standard grid form and surrounded by larger five-‐acre plots to support agricultural activities. In the first two decades of the 20th century Montebello thrived as an agricultural community cited as featuring an ideal climate, productive soil, and abundant water, with a reliable water supply system established in 1900 by William Mulholland’s Montebello Land and Water Company. By 1914 the town was serviced by electricity from Henry Huntington’s PLPC, and after a 1916 PLPC-‐SCE merger, the town’s electricity was provided by SCE. In 1917, the Standard Oil Company discovered oil in a privately owned plot of land in the Montebello Hills. By the time of incorporation, the Montebello oil fields produced one-‐eighth of the California’s crude oil supply.72 Built between 1912 and 1913, the Newmark Substation property is located roughly eight miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The 30’ tall, concrete substation structure and towers was built in a rural part of Los Angeles county in the early part of the 20th century to serve as a relay and transmission station between SCE’s Los Angeles #3 line and Long Beach steam plant.73 By 1920, the Newmark Substation was helping to deliver power to the 4,100 residents of Monterey Park and the surrounding communities.74 Multi-‐Part Subtype There are three substations of this subtype: La Fresa, Laguna Bell, and Rector. These buildings were put in-‐service between 1924 and 1930. La Fresa Substation The La Fresa Substation was constructed in 1930 in Torrance, California, approximately 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles. The city emerged as an early planned community under the utopian vision of Pasadena businessman Jared Sidney Torrance, who identified his new settlement as a model industrial town fit for white and blue collar workers. Founded in 1912 and planned by Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr., Torrance was intended to offer good healthy homes with pleasant surroundings to foster improved mental and physical health of its residents.75 The land comprising the original townsite was 2,800 acres and was designed to include a major parkway, El Prado Avenue, landscaped with trees and oriented for a scenic view, a pre-‐built sewer system, and a civic center off of El Prado Avenue replete with an administrative building / city hall, school, library, hospital, and auditorium. Irving Gill, who designed similar civic projects for the City of
71 City of Monterey Park, History of Monterey Park. http://www.montereypark.ca.gov/721/History-‐of-‐Monterey-‐Park. Accessed March 1, 2015. 72 City of Montebello, History of Montebello. http://www.cityofmontebello.com/about/default.asp. Accessed March 1, 2015. 73 Southern California Edison, Newmark Substation: Long Beach to Newmark and L.A. #3 to Colton Transmission Lines Showing Tower Numbers, Drawing No. 7247. 74 California Historic Population Figures: 1850-‐2000. 75 Nathan Masters, “Torrance at 100: the South Bay City’s Origins as a Model Industrial Town,” KCET, October 12, 2012. http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/history/la-‐as-‐subject/torrance-‐at-‐100-‐the-‐south-‐bay-‐citys-‐origins-‐as-‐a-‐model-‐industrial-‐town.html, Accessed March 27, 2015.
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Oceanside, a beachside town in northern San Diego County, designed some of these early buildings. At Torrance however, most of the planned streets and civic improvements were not constructed. The town developer, the Dominguez Land Company, was stymied in lot sales by an economic downturn in 1913 and the outbreak of WWI in 1914, although a number of industrial plants were established early on in the city including the Union Tool Company, the Hendrie Rubber Company and Glass Factory and the Llewellyn Iron Works. To support the new town and its industrial base, SCE provided electrical service to Torrance in 1912 through its Torrance Substation built at 1720 Madrona Avenue.76 In 1921 Torrance was incorporated with a population of 1,800 (approximate). At the end of 1921, the city’s economic base was solidified for years to come by the discovery oil. Derricks soon created a new visual landscape for the city. By 1930 the city’s population was recorded as 7,271. Torrance grew rapidly in the post-‐WWII period with new housing tracts and a booming resident population, and also by the cluster of aerospace and technology companies that established a presence in the area. The population increased by more than 100% between 1940 and 1960: 9,950 in 1940; 22,241 in 1950; and 100,991 in 1960.77 The La Fresa Substation was constructed in 193078 and may have been named for the strawberry fields which once surrounded the property (“las fresas” is the Spanish word for strawberries; this is a prime example of SCE’s fondness for using “whimsical puns” to name their substations, rather than using a traditional numbering system79). Constructed at a cost of nearly $2,000,000, the station and transmission lines were designed with a 200,000 horsepower capacity, which was intended to provide service to customers northwest of the company’s existing Long Beach steam plant.80 When the station went into service in 1930,81 it was the 9th major high-‐voltage distributing center on SCE’s transmission system and the first instance of construction of a primary distribution point away from the general north and south line of the high-‐voltage system.82 New technologies and modern construction improvements were implemented during the construction of the La Fresa Substation, including with the building itself, which was “one of the most modern on the Edison company system. The steel frame was welded to provide strength and assurance against any possible earthquake stress… [the building was] heated and ventilated automatically by electrically controlled apparatus and…virtually soundproof both from within and without.”83 Particular attention was paid to lighting within the substation building so that there would be “no shadow nor reflections against the instruments”84 of the switchboard, located on the first floor of the Main Substation Building (aka Switch House).85 Laguna Bell Substation The substation property was historically in the vicinity of two properties: the Laguna School, an elementary school located just southeast of the lot as early as 1923, at the northwest corner of Gage and Garfield Avenue (then known as Baker Avenue and the Compton and Jabonera Road, respectively) and Mt. Carmel Cemetery, established in 1931, two lots to the east of the property along Gage Avenue. The Laguna School was established
76 Myers, 260. SCE Confidential Substation Database. Historic views of the SCE Torrance Substation are on file within The Huntington Library, Southern California Edison Collection. 77 California Historic Population Figures: 1850-‐2000. 78 “Utility Builds Power Station: Edison Company Program Involves Large Sum La Fresa Plant Declared to be Model of Kind Unit Held Backbone of New Transmission System,” Los Angeles Times, November 3, 1929. 79 Myers, p. 210. 80 “Utility…”. 81 Ibid. 82 “Tower Steel Purchased: Edison Company Places Order for 2000 Tons of Material for Use in Expansion Program.” 83 “Utility…”. 84 Ibid. 85 La Fresa Substation: Architectural First & Second Floor Plans of Switch House, No. 518310-‐52.
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before the substation was built, remained adjacent to the substation property until at least 1949, and was demolished by 1964. A Pacific Electric railway line ran along what is Randolph Street today. Surrounding the substation was vacant land, however nearby dense residential neighborhood development in the cities of Vernon, Maywood, Huntington Park, and Bell to the west stopped at the Los Angeles River.86 The demand for electricity from these surrounding areas had necessitated an increase in capacity at the substation in 1927.87 By 1949, a large military reservation had been built around the intersection of Slauson and Eastern Avenues to the east. An Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway line ran on lots north of Randolph Street. Bell Gardens High School and Colmar School had been built to the west and the historic Lugo Adobe (not extant today) was across the street from the Laguna School. South of Gage Avenue were residential developments in Bell Gardens.88 By 1964, the area around the substation had been built up with industrial buildings north of Randolph Street and the Long Beach freeway built along the Los Angeles River to the west. The cities of Commerce, Montebello, and Bell Gardens were incorporated and the former military reservation became the Cheli Air Force Station. The railway line became a Southern Pacific Railroad track. Next to the historic cemetery was a new Park Lawn Cemetery.89 Currently, the Laguna Niguel Elementary School is on the lot east of Garfield Avenue, across from the Laguna Bell Substation Property. The Mt. Carmel Cemetery and Park Lawn Memorial Lawn are extant to the east of the elementary school. To the west is the Bell Gardens High School and to the south are residential areas and two additional elementary schools. North of the property are railroad tracks and industrial areas. Constructed in 1924, the Laguna Bell Substation property was one of nine substations that defined the SCE 220kV system, and additionally, the facility served as switching station and connection point to SCE’s Long Beach Steam Plant complex.90 When switching the electrical system from a 50-‐cycle to a 60-‐cycle frequency, SCE used the Laguna Bell Substation as a testing substation for the Bell Gardens pilot program in 1946. SCE chose a four and one-‐half square mile area in Bell Gardens to test changeover procedures, such as rewiring industrial motors, pumps, heavy equipment, customer meters, and electric clocks in the area. On April 16, 1946, Wayne Johnson, the SCE Frequency Change Manager, flipped a switch at the Laguna Bell Substation to start running on 60-‐cycle power. After the testing program succeeded, the rest of the system was gradually converted to 60 cycles.91 Rector Substation Rector Substation was constructed in 1927 and began operation in 1928. The facility was developed as a component of SCE’s Big Creek Hydroelectric System, which was developed in Eastern Fresno County in the 1910s and 1920s as one of California’s premier energy generating facilities. The Rector Substation was one of several substations developed along the system’s 220 kV transmission lines, which extended from the hydroelectric project to distribution facilities in Los Angeles and its surrounding urban areas. The Rector Substation served to relay power along the alignment and provide lower voltage power for local use in the surrounding agricultural areas around Visalia.92 In addition, power plant Kaweah Number One fed into the substation through transmission lines. 93
86 U.S. Geological Survey, Topographic map: Bell, 1936. 87 “Edison Unit in Suburb Completed,” Los Angeles Times, January 23, 1927. 88 U.S. Geological Survey, Topographic map: South Gate, 1949. 89 U.S. Geological Survey, Topographic map: South Gate, 1964. 90 “Industrial Substation Work Begun,” Los Angeles Times, April 20, 1930. 91 Myers, 203. 92 Garret Root and Polly Allen of Cardno, DPR 523 forms for Rector Substation, May 2015, 4. 93 Ibid., 6.
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STRUCTURAL / DESIGN INFORMATION SCE’s Monumental type substation buildings were designed primarily by SCE staff engineers and consulting architects. Stone and Webster, a Boston-‐based engineering company, however, designed the two block subtype properties. Block Subtype There are two substations of this subtype: Eagle Rock and Magunden. These two buildings were constructed as part of the Big Creek Hydroelectric System in 1913 and 1923, respectively. Eagle Rock Substation The Eagle Rock Substation includes one building and three associated features, associated switch racks, transformer banks, and electrical engineering equipment. The one building and the associated feature that are significant are the Main Substation and the entry pillars. Constructed in 1913 under the PLPC, the Eagle Rock Substation property is the original terminus of the Big Creek Hydroelectric System. When SCE increased its existing system to 220kV the substation became one of nine substations that defined the backbone of the SCE 220kV system. Access to the Eagle Rock Substation Building is at the end of a two and one-‐half mile uphill driveway from the street. Adjacent to the driveway, on the east side are a circuit tower and two banks of switch racks. At the top of the driveway is an entrance gate with two square concrete pillars built in 1926.94 Some time after 1941, the electric lantern lights at the top of the pillars were removed and the original iron gate was replaced by a chain link one. The Substation Building is set tilted to the west, so that its southwest corner meets the end of the driveway. Northwest of the building is an area of transformers. Northeast of the substation are a small dam and reservoir built in 1913 to supply water for the cooling towers. This dam and reservoir are extant.95 Main Substation Building (1913) The building has an L-‐shaped massing of two main sections, a six-‐story section connected to a three-‐story section south of it. The footprint is approximately 174 x 128 feet. The Stone and Webster construction company designed it as a stripped-‐down version of a multi-‐part vertical block commercial building. The building was originally organized to accommodate the machinery on the ground: the three-‐story section held the condensers; the six-‐story section the transformer banks, switch and bus rooms; and the connection space transformer banks and condenser switch boards.96 The twelve transformers and spare one in the building were the largest transformers built at the time, weighing 81 tons and holding 10,000 barrels of oil.97 The substation worked as a step-‐down transmission type, where its transformers changed the 150,000-‐volt electricity to lower levels of 72,000 and 18,000-‐volts before distribution through lines.98 Canopies on the east and west elevations mirrored the one on Powerhouse No. 1 and were where transmission lines connected to high-‐tension buses through oil switches on the fourth and fifth stories of the substation.99 The reinforced concrete building is roughly symmetrical in plan and composition, features deep eaves along the south, east
94 Southern California Edison Department of Engineering Design. Eagle Rock Substation: Plan, Elevation & Details of Main Entrance Gate & Equipment, sheet 47632-‐2, original date 1925-‐1926. 95 Former SCE employee, Comment posted January 2, 2014, “Noirish Los Angeles,” Skyscraper Forum, http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=170279&page=932, Accessed September 11, 2014. 96 Stone and Webster, First Floor Plan, Eagle Rock Sub Station, Big Creek Development, sheet 52794, 1913. 97 “Engineers Visit New Eagle Rock Station,” The Daily Southern Californian, Vol. 5, No. 16, October 13, 1914. 98 H.C. Hoyt, “The Big Creek Development of the Pacific Light and Power Company,” General Electric Review 17, no. 8 (1914), 838-‐9. 99 Ibid.
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and part of the west elevations, and a flat roof of composition sheets. On the roof of the three-‐story section are two long and wide roof monitors. The building is organized in vertical bays lined with large original double-‐hung sash tripartite wooden windows in wooden frames. Some of the windows are more articulated with sills. The three-‐story section is a two-‐part vertical block with the first story delineated by an upper course and a base and the upper level by a stepped parapet and recessed panels. Six vertical bays of the south elevation are punctuated by windows, which in the first two stories are wooden double-‐hung sash. Windows at the upper floor are hopper windows that open in the center. Small cypress trees and large vents also appear on this elevation. On the west and east elevations are large stepped surrounds for recessed double wooden doors, with a non-‐original metal single door replacing a wooden one (replacement done after 1941) within the original opening, and an adjacent window, a narrow tripartite double-‐hung wood sash. On the upper two stories of the west and east elevations are three bays of double-‐height windows. The lower portions of the double-‐height windows are double-‐hung sash and the upper portions appear to be fixed. All the windows on the east elevation have all been boarded over outside and painted over, but are intact and unaltered on the interior. A two-‐story connection between the three and six-‐story sections has a multi-‐paned steel window on the first floor, which replaced the original double-‐hung sash windows here after the 1923 fire. There is a course between the first and second stories, and a large window (double-‐hung sash on the bottom and fixed panes on top) on the second story. The original parapet on the east elevation is missing, but is intact on the west elevation. The six-‐story section is a three-‐part commercial block with six vertical bays on the south elevation that match the three-‐story sections and eight bays on the west and east elevations. The three-‐part block is divided by a simple course on the first story and another course below the sixth story with crenellations marking each bay. The parapet on the south elevation rises to meet in a low front gable and is flat along the other elevations. Historic photographs show that there was a “Southern California Edison Company” letter sign with a wood background that was on the parapet in 1921 and reveal it was damaged by the fire in 1923, but was not replaced, as later photographs from 1926 onwards do not include signage.100 The east and west elevations feature eight vertical bays with recessed windows on each story, except the fourth and fifth stories have the double-‐height windows. The south elevation features double-‐hung windows on its third and sixth stories and the double-‐height windows on the fourth and fifth. The windows on the east and west elevations are narrower due to the bays being fourteen feet; seven feet less than the south elevation's bays.101 The west elevation features a full-‐length structural steel overhang between the fifth and sixth stories. This was originally part of a rectangular concrete bracketed canopy that allowed wires to connect along the length of the overhang. Historic photographs indicate that it was damaged by the fire in 1923, but was not replaced. By 1928 the canopy was reduced to the simple overhanging bracing and the rebuilt partial eave that is seen today. Originally, the top floor had no openings and the fourth and fifth stories featured double-‐height windows as seen on the south elevation. After the fire, photographs from 1928 and 1941 show that the double-‐height windows were converted to plain openings with windows on the bottom for three bays and then full windows on every fourth bay. The top floor became plain rectangular openings for the southern three bays, a double bay width opening in the middle, and windows matching the other elevations on the northern three. After 1941, the rectangular openings reverted to double-‐height windows on the fourth and fifth stories and the openings on the top floor were filled in with multi-‐paned steel windows. These multi-‐
100 Photographs from 1917 do not show it on the building. G. Haven Bishop (photographer), Southern California Edison Photographs and Negatives, Photo SEC-‐02-‐05987, Huntington Digital Library. Accessed September 12, 2014. 101 Stone and Webster.
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paned steel windows are the only window designs not from the period of significance of 1913-‐1929, but they do match the other steel multi-‐paned windows on the building and were an appropriate choice if the openings needed to be enclosed. The double-‐height windows that were put in after 1941 could be seen as replacements for the original ones. The first two stories originally had the double-‐hung sash windows as seen on the three-‐story section, but most likely after the fire the windows were replaced with the multi-‐paned steel ones with central awning sashes that were also put on the north elevation at the same time. A historic photograph shows that the replacement was done by 1926.102 The third story's windows were replaced in kind with the double-‐hung sash there before. Along the concrete course between the first and second stories are circular indentations, where insulators used to be attached to the building. The east elevation has a rectangular overhanging section of painted metal panels supported by steel truss brackets on the sixth story. This was originally a concrete bracket structure, similar to the one seen on the east side but only the width of two bays, where it originally allowed lines to connect to towers on the roof. On the first story of the west elevation, there is a loading dock and a series of windows, where the opening is a strip of steel sash window on top and concrete on the bottom. On the second story are multi-‐paned steel windows. The third to sixth stories mirror the window pattern on the south elevation. The north elevation used to have the same pattern of windows seen on the other elevations. After the extensive damage from the 1923 fire, the north elevation was rebuilt more simply and utilitarian with large double-‐height balconies, staircases, six multi-‐paned steel window blocks (one has been boarded over and one used to be an opening before 1926), a non-‐original single metal door in an original opening, and a large double-‐height metal door that opens in four sections (replacement for the wooden door destroyed in the 1923 fire). A utilitarian two-‐story rectangular box is attached to the west half of its north elevation and has three steel multi-‐paned windows (replacement for the original double-‐hung windows seen on the other elevations with the switch done after the fire or at least before 1926), a large vent (originally the opening was a window until at least 1926), and large original wooden doors. A flat roof with coping covers it. Today the Eagle Rock Substation property Main Substation Building retains a high degree of integrity with respect to location, design, materials, workmanship, setting, feeling, and association. The building remains at its original location within the Eagle Rock substation property, and has not experienced substantive modifications to the exterior details. Character-‐defining features that have been retained are the windows, doors, massing, parapets, and concrete details (courses and eaves). The setting has been only minimally affected by the loss of original ancillary buildings, but overall the larger setting has been retained. The property’s original access driveway is still in use and the building was designed to be approached from the driveway. While much of the original machinery and equipment is not used or at the building interior, the substation is still operational today. The building is also used as a filming site for television shows and movies due to its proximity to the studios and its distinctive architecture.103 Associated Feature – Entry Pillars (c. 1926) The entrance pillars date to circa 1926 and are constructed of masonry with stucco cladding. The pillars are in block form with simple coursework intended to give a more formal appearance to the property’s access point. The existing gate between the pillars is a contemporary-‐period replacement. Paint is peeling around the perimeter and some spalling is observed. Magunden Substation The 1914 substation building is rectangular in plan, measuring 68 feet in width and 114 feet in length, and of three-‐story construction, with an industrial design that incorporates a classical revival aesthetic treatment. The reinforced concrete building stands on a poured concrete foundation, with a four-‐foot-‐high concrete apron spanning the base of the building and smooth concrete walls. The roof is of a very low pitch gable design, with
102 Bishop, Photo SEC-‐02-‐13569. Accessed September 26, 2014. 103 Southern California Edison, “Lights, Camera, Edison!” Inside Edison, June 2013, 12-‐13.
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modest concrete eaves. While the building is industrial in form and function, subtle classical allusions serve to convey a heightened architectural form. Fenestration is regular and symmetrical, with vertically oriented rhythmic bands of industrial inset between smooth concrete bays; a smooth concrete belt course separating the second and third stories, breaking the monolithic mass; and a simple concrete cornice extending from the sloping roofline.104 Fenestration generally consists of one over one wood frame windows in multi-‐light configurations, which line all walls but for the eastern wall, which is of solid concrete massing. All windows have been painted over. Doors consist of replacement, solid metal personnel doors and a small, metal roll-‐up door. A low metal carport supported by metal posts extends the length of the southern wall, providing covered vehicle parking. Along the first floor there are several two and three-‐part aluminum sliding glass windows that are insertions to the original building. As originally designed, electricity was conveyed directly to the building, with prominent concrete canopies extending off of the north side of the building to protect incoming lines and associated equipment. With the transfer of switching facilities to outside the building, these exterior features were removed.105 Box Subtype There are three substations within this subtype: Chino, Colton, and Newmark. These three properties were put in-‐service between 1912 and 1913. Chino Substation The Chino Substation includes six buildings and associated switch racks, transformer banks, and electrical engineering equipment. The one building that is significant is the Main Substation. Constructed in 1911-‐1912 the Chino Substation Building appears to have been designed and constructed by the Southern California Edison Company using in-‐house design, engineering, and construction staff. The building is rectilinear in plan, flat-‐roofed and two-‐stories in height, and was built of board form concrete in a Stripped Classical style that is characteristic of the SCE architectural idiom. The footprint is approximately 99 x 54 feet. Features of the building include a symmetrical composition on each elevation with each exterior façade divided into multiple vertical bays by pilaster strips surmounted by an entablature, comprised of architrave, frieze, and cornice, that wraps the building perimeter. The front (south) elevation is comprised of three vertical bays constructed to include a pair of multi-‐lite wood and glass doors with a multi-‐lite transom in the center bay, flanked on each side by the outer bay constructed to include two two-‐over-‐two wood sash windows. The front elevation fenestration has been altered through the infill of the four original first floor windows and by replacing the original entry doors and transom with a metal roll-‐up door. These modifications, however, have not significantly affected the appearance of the façade, and the outline of the original fenestration is still evident. The second story windows – two per bay – are intact but have been painted over at the exterior. ‘Southern California Edison Co.’ signage in a modernistic font is mounted to the front façade in the center of the building’s frieze. The rear elevation is divided into two vertical bays and features five full-‐height pilaster strips with two overscale openings; the first features original multi-‐lite wood and glass doors with multi-‐lite transom, and the second features a replacement metal roll-‐up door. Between these two large openings is a single entry wood and glass door. The east and west elevations features multiple windows openings, most with original two-‐over-‐two wood sash windows intact, and some having been infilled or painted over at the exterior; mid-‐level bandcourse is installed aobe the first floor windows at the east and west elevations. The building interior contains much equipment that appears to date from the circa 1940s-‐1950s period. Overall, the building appears to be in good condition, and appears to retain integrity despite painting-‐over or alterations to some of the original windows.
104 Garret Root and Polly Allen of Cardno, DPR 523 forms for Magunden Substation, May 2015, 3. 105 Ibid.
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Although the building has experienced some alterations, it still retains its essential physical features and still physically conveys its identified signficance. The building retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association. Colton Substation The Colton Substation includes three buildings and associated switch racks and electrical engineering equipment. The two buildings that are significant are the Main Substation Building and the Communication and Dispatcher’s Building. Main Substation Building (1912) The SCE Colton Substation Building is a two-‐story Classical Revival building constructed of reinforced concrete in a rectilinear plan with symmetrically composed façades. The footprint is approximately 157 x 52 feet. It is covered by a flat roof of composition sheets and enclosed by a parapet wall topped by a simple horizontal course at all façades. The roof has a deep overhang of exposed rafters enclosed by fascia boards. Entrances on the north and south elevations originally featured wooden doors, while wood-‐frame windows are along the west and east elevations. Wooden boards cover many of the original openings, but the windows and doors appear to be intact, except on the northeast corner. The north elevation originally featured two recessed panels and an entrance within each panel. The east entrance had double wooden doors with glazing and transom windows on top. The west entrance was wider with four wooden door panels and transom windows on top.106 In 1915, the Substation Building was extended by a bay with a new north elevation wall, featuring three recessed panels and one central entrance of four-‐paneled doors with glazing and two wooden transom windows.107 The central two panels opened as a double door and the side panels were fixed. By 1921, there was a letter sign spelling out “Southern California Edison Co” in capital letters and held up by steel trusses from the north edge of the roof. At this time, vines were growing on this facade to soften the concrete surface.108 The sign was removed some time after 1938.109 After 1938, a large metal roll-‐up garage door replaced the entrance doors. The west and east elevations consist of six bays of recessed panels. There were originally five bays when the building was constructed in 1912. In 1915 an additional bay at the north end extended the building.110 Each panel has a large three-‐casement window bookended by two side casement windows on the first story and two rectangular awning windows on the second story. The only exception to this pattern on the first story was on the west elevation, where the second to southernmost bay consisted of four single casement windows. Above some of the windows were square openings where the transmission lines connected and insulators were set. By 1918, several changes happened to the east elevation: its walls were covered in vines, lightning arresters were placed next to the wall on concrete bases surrounded by chain link fencing with concrete feet, and the land next to it was crushed rock where the lightning arresters were and then further away landscaped with grass.111 The surrounding hardscape is now just asphalt and crushed rock. By 1923, the two northern bays on the east elevation had their second story windows replaced by vents.112 The vents were replaced by windows
106 Bishop, Photo SEC-‐02-‐00849, accessed April 15, 2015. 107 Ibid., Photo SEC-‐02-‐06673, accessed April 13, 2015. Southern California Edison, Colton Substation Revised Elevations and Sections of Substation Building, drawing #58510, 1924. 108 Ibid., Photo SEC-‐02-‐06673, accessed October 3, 2014. 109 Ibid., Photo SEC-‐02-‐20689, accessed October 3, 2014. 110 Southern California Edison, Colton Substation Revised Elevations and Sections of Substation Building. 111 Bishop, Photo SEC-‐02-‐04327, accessed October 3, 2014. 112 Ibid., Photo SEC-‐02-‐10243, accessed October 3, 2014.
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at an unknown date. In 1924, some of the transmission line openings were closed with screens.113 By 1938, the third bay from the north corner had its first-‐story windows replaced by a large metal garage door.114 Between 1921 and 1923, the west elevation had a small one-‐story pump house added with a window and vent on its south elevation and a vent and door on its north elevation.115 By 1923, there was a cooling water tower next to the pump house, which has since been removed.116 By 1927, near the cooling tower, there were also some storage tanks, also since removed.117 In 1924, some transmission line openings were also covered with screens on the west elevation, but six additional openings were cut into the wall's northernmost bay and a window changed into a door. By 1924, two other windows on the west elevations had already been converted to doors.118 The south elevation features three bays with a central entrance that consists of a double door and transom window. Just outside the door were lightning arresters. The arrestors were removed at an unknown date.119 Two sections of the eave projected out above the spots where wires connected into the building.120 In 1924, the south entrance was remodeled with new doors of sugar pine.121 The doors were removed at an unknown date and a single door gives access to a workshop area now. Today the Main Substation Building retains a moderate degree of integrity with respect to design, materials, workmanship, location, setting, feeling, and association. The building retains many major exterior elements original to its design including massing, plan, fenestration (although openings are covered over), and original cornice that wraps the building perimeter. These extant features help to convey the original design, materials, and workmanship for the building. The building remains at its original location and has not been moved. The building’s setting within the substation, and the setting around the substation property remains consistent with its historic setting within a light industrial pocket of Colton. In its current appearance the Colton Main Substation Building still resembles a substation constructed in the early part of the 20th Century with a Classical Revival influence, and consequently, still offers a feeling of and association with SCE’s substation development in the historic era. Communication and Dispatcher’s Building (circa 1924) The Communication and Dispatcher's Building is a one-‐story reinforced concrete building located immediately northeast of the Main Substation Building. It is covered by a flat roof of composition sheets and used to support electrical equipment. A cornice spans the building perimeter, as well as a flat parapet wall with a thin course on top projecting approximately one foot beyond the cornice line. The building is rectangular in plan, organized symmetrically, and has a protruding base. The footprint is approximately 18 x 44 feet. The west and east elevations feature a central door with a wood transom surmounted by a Period Revival concrete surround, and flanked on each side by a single multi-‐lite wooden window. Metal screens cover the windows on the west and north elevations. Five additional multi-‐lite wooden windows are sited along the north elevation. Two doors and transom windows are located along the south elevation, with a smaller window with a visible concrete sill sited between them. All openings at the south elevation are boarded over and obscured from view. The building appears to retain a high degree of integrity with respect to design, materials, workmanship, location, setting, feeling, and association.
113 Southern California Edison, Colton Substation Revised Elevations and Sections of Substation Building. 114 Bishop, Photo SEC-‐02-‐20689, accessed October 3, 2014. 115 Bishop, Photos SEC-‐02-‐06673, SCE-‐02-‐10238, and SCE-‐02-‐15255, accessed April 14, 2015. 116 Ibid., Photo SEC-‐02-‐00240, accessed October 3, 2014. 117 Ibid., Photo SEC-‐02-‐11627, accessed October 3, 2014. 118 Southern California Edison, Colton Substation Revised Elevations and Sections of Substation Building. 119 Bishop, Photo SEC-‐02-‐04328, accessed October 3, 2014. 120 Ibid., Photo SEC-‐02-‐00848, accessed April 13, 2015. 121 Southern California Edison, Details for Remodeling Interior of Substation Building, drawing #58340, 1924.
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Newmark Substation The Newmark Substation includes four buildings and associated switch racks and electrical engineering equipment. The one building that is significant individually is the Main Substation Building. The Newmark Main Substation Building was constructed in 1912-‐1913, in a Classical Revival style of architecture with minimal art deco articulations. The building’s monumental appearance is derived from its massing with a rectilinear plan, oversized two-‐story height, flat roof, and austere facades with smooth wall texture, squared edge belt course and projecting squared edge cornice that wrap the building perimeter. The footprint is approximately 124 x 40 feet. Symmetrically composed full-‐height recessed bays evenly spaced between full-‐height pilasters fill the north and south elevations. Each elevation contains ten bays as originally constructed, with a 4 x 8 lite clerestory window with 2 x 3 awning style unit at the center of each clerestory in each of the central eight recessed bays. At least four of the original clerestory windows have been replaced, and at least five of the original clerestory windows have been painted over or boarded up. Bays 1 and 10 on both the east and west elevations has a single 3 x 2 lite casement window at the first floor level, below the “new ceiling line” and recessed into the wall. Additionally, the west elevation was designed with two 3 x 4 lite fixed windows on the first floor in Bays 2 and 3, and a single access door in Bays 5 and 6.122 A double door with a fixed 2 x 8 lite transom exists at the first floor of the south elevation, and a single door surrounded by several fixed-‐sash lights and transoms and two solid panels on either side of the door at ground level can be seen on the north elevation. A projecting squared edge surround that terminates in a triple keystone surmounts the north elevation entrance. The keystone feature is extant at all other first floor openings treated with a similar projecting squared edge surround. The squared edge details around the building suggest a modernistic art deco influence for the monumental structure. The east and west elevations of the substation building were designed to include ten bays each, with a 4 x 8 lite clerestory window with 2 x 3 awning style unit at the center of each clerestory in each of the central eight recessed bays.123 Current photographs indicate that at least four of the original clerestory windows have been replaced, and at least five of the original clerestory windows have been painted over or boarded up.124 Bays 1 and 10 on both the east and west elevations has a single 3 x 2 lite casement window at the first floor level, below the “new ceiling line” and recessed into the wall.125 Additionally, the west elevation was designed with two 3 x 4 lite fixed windows on the first floor in Bays 2 and 3, and a single access door in Bays 5 and 6.126 A double door with a fixed 2 x 8 lite transom exists at the first floor of the south elevation, and a single door surrounded by several fixed-‐sash lights and transoms and two solid panels on either side of the door at ground level can be seen on the north elevation. A small addition was constructed on the west side of the substation building in 1921, as indicated on SCE Drawing No. 53498. In the early months of 1923, a fire broke out in the Newmark Substation building, causing serious damage to the mechanics inside the structure, but leaving the structure itself mostly intact.127 Post-‐fire photographs indicate new switchboards were installed in the substation building in the second half of 1923; however, current photographs show a nearly empty shell of a building, with most of the system mechanics having been removed.128
122 Southern California Edison, Details for Remodeling Interior of Substation Building, drawing #58340, 1924. 123 Southern California Edison, Newmark Substation: East and West Elevations, Drawing No. 5767. 124 See current photographs DSCF8360, DSCF8363, DSCF8361, and DSCF8367 (on file at Urbana) for examples. 125 Southern California Edison, Newmark Substation: East and West Elevations, Drawing No. 5767. 126 Ibid. 127 Southern California Edison Collection: Newmark Substation Historic Photographs. 128 Ibid.
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Multi-‐Part Subtype There are three substations of this subtype: La Fresa, Laguna Bell, and Rector. These buildings were put in-‐service between 1924 and 1930. La Fresa Substation The La Fresa Substation includes nine buildings and structures, associated switch racks and electrical engineering equipment. The one building that is significant individually is the Main Substation Building. Constructed in 1930, the building is concrete and plaster with a 2 ½ story rectilinear plan, a flat roof, and a symmetrically composed west elevation offset by Art Deco style facade details. The footprint is approximately 73 x 56 feet. The west elevation is comprised of three vertical bays with the central bay projecting out from the wall plane capped by two return walls that form pilasters. The majority of Art Deco design detail is located at the central bay including stylized vertical reliefs: one linear ribbed relief at the corner of each return wall (two total), one rectilinear relief panel topped by a separate square relief panel set in the middle of each pilaster (four panels total – two rectangles and two squares), and a central geometric shape that projects out from the facade at the roofline. Two additional linear ribbed reliefs are sited at the northwest and southwest building corners (one at each corner). A plain frieze painted white articulates the two outer bays at the west elevation. Overall, the west elevation presents a tidy geometric form that alternates wall planes by projecting the central bay and stepping back the upper wall portions / cornice above the frieze. West elevation fenestration includes solid (replacement) double entry doors flanked on each side by a full-‐height sidelight window and surmounted by a large 8 x 5 lite window at the second level; three 2 x 3 steel sash windows -‐ two at the second level, and one on the first floor; and a replacement one-‐over-‐one window at the north side of the first floor. All window openings are punched. The north elevation has a contemporary-‐period addition constructed of corrugated metal siding with a standing-‐seam shed roof. The projecting northwest corner wraps around the north elevation to create a vertical bay. An original steel sash window is extant at the first and second floor of the northwest corner bay. The south elevation features an identical projecting bay at the southwest corner with the same steel sash windows. The east elevation contains ductwork for the building. Overall the building exterior is in good condition with no major spalling or deficiencies observed. The Main Substation Building also contained a basement, where intricate patterns of control cables were located, and communications rooms, located on the second floor.129 The first-‐floor window at the northwest corner on the west (front) elevation was altered shortly after construction130; a battery house was added to the north side of the building in 1966, and an additional extension was added to the rear of the battery room in 1996.131 Laguna Bell Substation The Laguna Bell Substation includes eight buildings and structures, associated transformers, switch racks and electrical engineering equipment. The two buildings that are significant are the Main Substation Building and the Warehouse. Main Substation Building (1924) The substation building was designed in a Modernized or Stripped Classical style. The substation building is rectangular in plan with a flat roof covered in composition rolls and a parapet wrappings its perimeter. The footprint is approximately 185 x 73 feet. The reinforced concrete building is asymmetrical in massing from the front-‐facing east elevation with a main section of three-‐stories of three bays and another two-‐story
129 Southern California Edison Collection: Newmark Substation Historic Photographs. 130 Ibid. 131 Southern California Edison, La Fresa Substation: Switch House Architectural Elevations and Details, No. 518300-‐3.
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section of one bay attached to its south elevation. Multi-‐lite, steel awning sash windows punctuate the bays. A thick protruding base unites the two sections. The three-‐story section is set apart by large corner piers that run its height until the parapet. It features a pedimented doorway with brackets holding up the entablature of the pediment and curved concrete wall railings in front of the door. The door originally was a single wood panel with glazing, which was replaced at an unknown date, and is topped by its original transom window. On either side of the door are windows with a central awning sash. The second and third stories have taller, single windows with an awning sash for the upper panes on the first and third bays. The central bays have triple windows with similar windows in wood frames. Between the second and third stories and between the door and windows where there used to be lanterns are recessed panels with square corners (the original lanterns were replaced by contemporary lights at an unknown date). The letters “Southern California Edison Company” are installed in the panel between the second and third stories. The parapet culminates in a curbed shape, an abstracted Mission Revival form, with a recessed circle in the center. On the east elevation of the two-‐story section, there are also single windows, similar to the one of the first and second stories of the three-‐story section and the abstracted panel between the stories. The north elevation is on the three-‐story section and originally consisted of six bays with single windows similar to the ones on the first and third bays of the east elevation. The south elevation of the two-‐story section also consisted of six bays in a manner mirroring the north elevation and the same organization continued onto the visible third-‐story of the three-‐story section. By 1928, the 1927 extension had increased the building's length on the north and south elevations to ten bays.132 On the north elevation, a doorway at the seventh bay includes a single door with glazed opening, recessed concrete panels on the sides, and a large transom window (six-‐over-‐three steel frame). On the south elevation some of the window openings are concreted, some boarded over, and some edged with round indentations, where insulators used to be attached to the building. One of the south elevation's first-‐story window openings is a single door with large transom window, similar to a doorway seen on the north elevation. Another noteworthy feature is the parapet on this elevation features two front gable shapes and at the southeast corner, a parapet shape similar to the one on the east elevation. Adjacent to the south elevation are concrete pads, where transformers were attached. The west elevation features a large two-‐story-‐height metal rolling door to accommodate large-‐scale electrical equipment on the south side of the three-‐story section. On the second story of the three-‐story section are narrow triple windows. The two stories of the two-‐story section and the first story of the three-‐story section have a single door topped by a transom window and two large multi-‐paned steel sash windows. On the two-‐story section, the second-‐story door has a metal stairway to access it and the first-‐story door is topped by a metal vent, instead of a transom window. The third story of the main section features a window arrangement that mirrors the east elevation: three bays with a central wide triple window between single windows. Currently, some of the windows are boarded over, but they are intact. The building with its associated warehouse retains integrity of location, design, setting (though the entrance and driveway has changed, the view to the entrance remains), materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. Warehouse (1924) The rectangular-‐plan warehouse building was constructed in 1924. The footprint is approximately 60 x 32 feet. It is a one-‐story, side-‐gabled reinforced concrete building with a plaster coating. The roof consists of standing seam metal sheets. On the east and west elevations are sliding original Kalamein doors with original steel sash windows on either side. On the south elevation is a small original single door.
132 G. Haven Bishop (photographer), Southern California Edison Photographs and Negatives, SEC Photo #02-‐15272, Huntington Digital Library. Accessed October 22, 2014.
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Rector Substation The Rector Substation includes five buildings and structures, associated transformers, switch racks and electrical engineering equipment. The one building that is significant is the Main Substation Building. The 1928 substation building contains subtle elements of Art Deco-‐styling and form, with smooth concrete massing coupled with subtle stepped banding, recessed ribbon windows, and prominent angled parapets. The original portion of the substation building is generally rectangular in form and of a substantial height, with a small single-‐story wing extending from the northwest corner. Two single-‐story additions extend from the original building, one completed in 1954 and the second in 1987. The utilitarian additions extend from the north of the building, lending the assemblage an irregular floor plan that measures roughly 130 feet north-‐to-‐south by 120 feet east–to-‐west.133 The original portion of the substation building is constructed on a poured concrete foundation, with a four-‐foot high concrete apron and board formed concrete walls. The building has a flat concrete roof reinforced by steel trusses. The original portion of the building is generally oriented east-‐west, with angled parapets and oversize multi-‐light window configurations lining the east and west sides of the building and rhythmic bands of narrow recessed industrial windows lining the north and south sides of the building. Windows are of steel-‐frame design, with 9 to 12 lights on the north and south sides, with the east and west sides characterized by expansive groupings of 66 lights. While portions of the windows were designed as operable awning-‐type openings, all hardware and operational mechanisms have been removed. In addition, windows are sealed closed by plywood placed inside the building. Lastly, some windows have been replaced by large HVAC ducts along the southern wall. Access to the building is provided by offset modern double doors on the south side of the building. The doors, and surrounding wood wall, are an infill of the original openings, which were industrial in scale and accommodated a railroad spur that accessed the building, since removed.134 The 1954 and 1987 additions extend from the north side of the original building. The additions are utilitarian in form and one-‐story in height, standing at a far lower profile than the much larger mass of the original substation. The 1954 addition is located on the northwest corner and measures 58 feet north-‐to-‐south by 40 feet east-‐to-‐west. The addition is composed of smooth concrete block walls, a flat concrete roof with metal flashing, a single fixed window and one solid metal door. The 1987 addition extends north from the original building, along the east side of the 1954 construction. This element is constructed of textured concrete blocks and measures 60 feet square, with a low parapet surrounding the flat concrete roof and fenestration limited to three utilitarian solid metal doors. 135 The building originally housed large condensers, batteries, switches, and frequency changers, which are no longer extant. At present, SCE has developed a large steel chamber that fills much of the building, housing a host of electronic equipment used in regulating voltage and transfer of electricity.136 Character defining features of the Rector Substation include the original substation building’s footprint and massing, its smooth concrete walls, industrial fenestration including steel frame windows, and its subtle Art Deco detailing including stepped concrete banding and angled parapets. The primary mass of the substation retains strong integrity to the historic period and remains a significant representative of SCE’s architectural and engineering development.137
133 Garret Root and Polly Allen of Cardno, DPR 523 forms for Rector Substation, 3. 134 Ibid. 135 Ibid. 136 Ibid., 4. 137 Ibid., 8.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY General Historical Context Primary Sources Fowler, Frederick Hall. Hydroelectric Power Systems of California and Their Extension into Oregon and
Nevada. Water-‐supply paper, issue 493. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1923. “Kern River No. 1 Power Plant of Edison Electric Co., Los Angeles.” Electrical World 50. August 10, 1907. Southern California Edison. Confidential Substation Database. -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐ Southern California Edison Photographs and Negatives.
http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16003coll2. Huntington Digital Library. Secondary Sources Edison International. A Look Back: Our History. http://www.edison.com/home/about-‐us/our-‐
history.html#27764. Accessed October 13, 2014. Myers, William A. Iron Men and Copper Wires: A Centennial History of the Southern California Edison
Company. Glendale: Trans-‐Anglo Books, 1986. Theodoratus, Dorothea, Clinton M. Blount, Valerie H. Diamond, Stephen G. Helmich, and Robert A. Hicks /
Theodoratus Cultural Research, Inc. Evaluation of the Historic Resources of the Bishop Creek Hydroelectric System. 1988.
Eagle Rock Substation Primary Sources “Big Creek Power Put to Work in This City.” Los Angeles Times, November 9, 1913. Bishop, G. Haven (photographer). Southern California Edison Photographs and Negatives, Huntington Digital
Library. Accessed September 12, 2014. “Blast Starts Power Blaze: Street Car Service in Los Angeles Curtailed.” Los Angeles Times, January 10, 1923. “Engineers Visit New Eagle Rock Station.” The Daily Southern Californian, Vol. 5, No. 16, October 13, 1914. Hoyt, H.C. “The Big Creek Development of the Pacific Light and Power Company.” General Electric Review
17, no. 8 (1914). Loewenthal, Max. “Splendid Advance of Electrical Industry.” Los Angeles Times, January 17, 1915. Southern California Edison, Department of Engineering Design. Eagle Rock Substation: Plan, Elevation &
Details of Main Entrance Gate & Equipment, sheet 47632-‐2, 1925-‐1926. Stone and Webster. First Floor Plan, Eagle Rock Sub Station, Big Creek Development, sheet 52794, 1913. “Tremendous Electric Force at Our Door.” Los Angeles Times, November 2, 1913. Secondary Sources Eagle Rock Valley Historical Society. Newsletter, Winter 2014. Former SCE employee. Comment posted January 2, 2014. “Noirish Los Angeles,” Skyscraper Forum.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=170279&page=932, Accessed September 11, 2014.
Friedricks, William B. Henry E. Huntington and the Creation of Southern California. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1992.
Gnerre, Sam. “Redondo Beach's Power Plants,” Daily Breeze Blog. http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history/2011/10/05/redondo-‐beachs-‐power-‐plant/, Accessed September 15, 2014.
Myers, William A. Iron Men and Copper Wires: A Centennial History of the Southern California Edison Company. Glendale: Trans-‐Anglo Books, 1986.
Southern California Edison. “Bringing Big Creek to Life,” Inside Edison, November 2013. -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐“Lights, Camera, Edison!” Inside Edison, June 2013.
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Warren, Eric H. and Frank E. Parrello. Pioneers of Eagle Rock. Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press, 2014.
Water and Power Associates. “First Electricity in Los Angeles,” Mulholland-‐Scattergood Virtual Museum, http://waterandpower.org/museum/First%20Electricity%20in%20Los%20Angeles.html, Accessed September 15, 2014.
Magunden Substation Primary Sources The history and description of this substation is largely quoted from the following secondary source. Secondary Source Root, Garret and Polly Allen. Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) 523 forms for Magunden Substation.
May 2015. Chino Substation Primary Sources Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Chino (San Bernardino Co.). Key Sheets c. 1895, 1897, 1907, 1912, 1925,
1932. Secondary Sources Brown, John Jr. and James Boyd. History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. Volume 1. The Lewis
Publishing Company: Chicago, IL. 1922. City of Chino Website. Did You Know: Historical Facts. www.cityofchino.org/index.aspx?page=558. Accessed
June 7, 2010. City of Chino General Plan. Colton Substation Primary Sources Andree, J.W. “Operating Interconnected Hydro Plants for Best System Economy.” Electrical World 79 New
York: McGraw Hill Company, Inc., 1922. -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐“Synchronous Condensers in High-‐Tension System.” Electrical World 74, no. 11. September
1919. Armstrong, G.E. “Relay Protective Systems.” Journal of Electricity 42, no.8. April 15, 1919. Bishop, G. Haven (photographer). Southern California Edison Photographs and Negatives. Photos SEC-‐02
-‐00848, -‐00849, -‐00850, -‐01611, -‐04327, -‐04328, -‐06673, -‐10238, -‐10240, -‐10243, -‐11617, -‐11627, -‐15254, -‐15258, and -‐20689. http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16003coll2. Huntington Digital Library.
Southern California Edison. Colton Substation Revised Elevations and Sections of Substation Building. Drawing #58510. 1924.
-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐ Details for Remodeling Interior of Substation Building. Drawing #58340. 1924. U.S. Geological Survey. San Bernardino Quadrangle, California. 1:62,500. 15 Minute Series. Washington D.C.:
USGS, 1896. Secondary Sources City of Colton. Our Community. http://www.ci.colton.ca.us/index.aspx?nid=98. Accessed September 30,
1914. The Lightfoot Planning Group and Affinis. Colton Cultural Resources Preservation Element. 2000.
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Myers, William A. Iron Men and Copper Wires: A Centennial History of the Southern California Edison Company. Glendale: Trans-‐Anglo Books, 1986.
Swanson, Mark T. (historian) and David DeVries (photographer). Historic American Engineering Record, CA-‐130: Santa Ana River Hydroelectric System, San Bernardino County, California. Report by Greenwood & Associates for the Army Corps of Engineers, 1992.
Newmark Substation Primary Sources Southern California Edison. Newmark Substation: East and West Elevations, Drawing No. 5767. -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐Newmark Substation: Long Beach to Newmark and L.A. #3 to Colton Transmission Lines
Showing Tower Numbers, Drawing No. 7247. -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐ Southern California Edison Photographs and Negatives.
http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16003coll2. Huntington Digital Library. Secondary Sources City of Montebello. History of Montebello. http://www.cityofmontebello.com/about/default.asp. Accessed March 1,
2015. City of Monterey Park. History of Monterey Park. http://www.montereypark.ca.gov/721/History-‐of-‐Monterey-‐Park.
Accessed March 1, 2015. Myers, William A. Iron Men and Copper Wires: A Centennial History of the Southern California Edison
Company. Glendale: Trans-‐Anglo Books, 1986. State of California. California Historic Population Figures: 1850-‐2000. (From Urbana’s in-‐house library). La Fresa Substation Primary Sources Southern California Edison. La Fresa Substation: Architectural First & Second Floor Plans of Switch House, No.
518310-‐52. -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐ La Fresa Substation: Switch House Architectural Elevations and Details, No. 518300-‐3 -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐ Confidential Substation Database. -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐ Southern California Edison Photographs and Negatives.
http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16003coll2. Huntington Digital Library. “Tower Steel Purchased: Edison Company Places Order for 2000 Tons of Material for Use in Expansion
Program.” Los Angeles Times, May 12, 1929. “Utility Builds Power Station: Edison Company Program Involves Large Sum La Fresa Plant Declared to be
Model of Kind Unit Held Backbone of New Transmission System.” Los Angeles Times, November 3, 1929.
Secondary Sources Masters, Nathan. “Torrance at 100: the South Bay City’s Origins as a Model Industrial Town.” KCET, October
12, 2012. http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/history/la-‐as-‐subject/torrance-‐at-‐100-‐the-‐south-‐bay-‐citys-‐origins-‐as-‐a-‐model-‐industrial-‐town.html. Accessed March 27, 2015.
Myers, William A. Iron Men and Copper Wires: A Centennial History of the Southern California Edison Company. Glendale: Trans-‐Anglo Books, 1986.
State of California. California Historic Population Figures: 1850-‐2000. (From Urbana’s in-‐house library). Laguna Bell Substation Primary Sources
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Bishop, G. Haven (photographer). Southern California Edison Photographs and Negatives, Huntington Digital Library. Accessed October 22 and 28, 2014.
“Edison Unit in Suburb Completed.” Los Angeles Times, January 23, 1927. “Industrial Substation Work Begun.” Los Angeles Times, April 20, 1930. U.S. Geological Survey. Topographic map: Bell. 1936. -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐ Topographic map: South Gate. 1949. -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐ Topographic map: South Gate. 1964. Secondary Sources Myers, William A. Iron Men and Copper Wires: A Centennial History of the Southern California Edison
Company. Glendale: Trans-‐Anglo Books, 1986. Rector Substation The history and description of this substation is largely quoted from the following secondary source. Secondary Source Root, Garret and Polly Allen. Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) 523 forms for Rector Substation. May 2015.