LOS ANGELES (KNX) - Next time you’re ambling after dark, take a closer look at the lampposts lighting your way. L.A.’s streetlights are more than a public utility — they’re a civic art project more than 150 years in the making.
As Evan Lovett explains on “LA In A Minute,” Los Angeles has one of the most diverse streetlight ecosystems anywhere in the country.
The city’s first street lamps date back to 1867, when the Los Angeles Gas Company installed 43 gas lamps on Main Street. By 1905, thousands of spectators came to watch the lighting of over 100 ornate electric lamps on Broadway.
Throughout the early 20th century, L.A.’s lighting system became a point of pride for the still-developing city. Bespoke street lamp designs became a way for new subdivisions to distinguish themselves from other neighborhoods.
Today, L.A. is home to more than 400 different types of street lamps. Fittingly, there are not just one, but two iconic art installations celebrating L.A.’s history of unique lighting.
Sheila Klein’s Vermonica, installed in 1993, consists of 25 streetlamps dating back as far as 1925. The artwork stood in a strip mall parking lot in East Hollywood until 2017, and now resides across the street from the Cahuenga Branch Library.
In 2008, Chris Burden’s Urban Light opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The installation, composed of 202 historic street lamps dating from the 1920s and 1930s, was described by LACMA as “a symbol of the city” and “indisputably the most popular artwork on campus.”
Los Angeles is also the only city in the U.S. with its own Street Light Museum, which opened in 2015 and is maintained by the Bureau of Street Lighting. The museum features original street lamps from throughout the city’s history.
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